Pitch Black
by FrenchGirlWriting
Summary: An escaped prisonner. A mermaid. A wounded boy. Who would have thought that together they would cause the revival of the Black House and the greatest commotion the wizarding world had ever known ? Injected with mermaid's and Black's blood Harry Potter became Altair Sirius Black, a prince to the Black and the key to the Pureblood's lost glory.
1. Prologue

**Pitch Black**

 **Prologue**

 **Note :** _This is a Sirius raise Harry, a Harry in the Black Family and also a Sirius/OC story. Here, we travel into the world of magic creatures and pureblood families._

There was always this strange feeling about the North Sea's waters.

Forever calm, as if even the creatures that dwelled in it didn't dare to make themselves known, for even the bottom of sea was less frightening than the wind that blow on its surface.

But this creature knew where the darkness came from and she knew the origins of the sinister wind that blew softly on the surface of the waters.

Through her solitary travels she discovered this part of the North Sea and immediately liked it for its calm and lonely atmosphere. Here we could float on the surface without risking of being seen by anybody. And for her who had to live in the most cold and dark part of the depths to see the light of the sun was an incomparable gift, even if it was England's pale one.

And then she discovered it, the reason of her lovely loneliness. Not far from there stood a grim forteress on a islet. As soon as she approached it, the charm was broken and the sounds of mad screams and laughters shattered the silence. Around the building, gigantic and squelet like figures flew, clothed in a black that could only belong to death itself.

In all her long life spent in the depths, hinding her face from men and their greedy desire, she saw darkness in multiple forms but never like these ones. She saw the color a of a night without any lights, without any warmth, but never did she saw the complete black of despair.

Azkaban was the place of despair.

But that didn't make her want to flee. It didn't because for the first time, her heart of stone seemed to be touched by so much cruelty and pain. So she stayed there, the human part of her body offered to the wind, her long inky hair stuck against her moon like skin, her red lips pressed tight and her inumanly beautiful face twisted under the pain of pity.

It's already been a few days since she swam around the isle and touch the building with only the tips of her fingers, going down under the waters when the screams were too loud or when the black creatures flew too close. The dark things never sought her ill, as if even in all their vileness they had enough heart for it to be charmed by her.

Sowly it became her daily habit for the creatures of her specie weren't easily bored by new discoveries. She tried to listen what the prisoners said and to distinguish their age and sex through their voice made piercing by madness.

And then she heard it...Him. This voice belonged to a man, a young man. And if it wasn't for the brokenness in it, never did she heard a man having a voice so charming. He screamed like the others, but we could distincly hear the sentence that he repeated like a mantra : « I am innocent ! ».

Even with the tiredness, the madness or the strangled sobs that ponctuated it, each day, he repeated it and each day she came back to hear it. And then one day he stopped saying it, but his screams could still be heard. But it wasn't sharp and broken screams of madness but ones of wrath, powerful and raging like the thunder in the sky.

She finished by stopping in front of the wall of his cell, down on the left of the tower, before stones that were whipped by the waves. She didn't know why she stayed nor why did she came back each day asking herself if he was still here, if he was still alive, or if he didn't go mad like the all others.

Time passed and months became years but she still came back each day at the feet of the tower to hear the voice of the man that she came to call her prisonner. When she heard him, a smile appeared unconsciously on her lips as she let half of her face disappear under the water. She swam slowly until she was close enough to put her hands on one of the stone of the cell.

This night wasn't supposed to be different of the others.

Under the pitch black sky and the shining moon a mermaid stood close to one of the walls of Azkaban. For six years she came here, sometimes only for a few minutes, sometimes for several hours. She didn't thought of changing her habits anytime soon but a stone decided it for her.

How funny it is that one stone and one move changed the destiny of an entire world.

A simple push on the stone that she touched for six years was this night enough to make it rock backward once before it finally into the water with a wet sound. And the hole that it left behind was just big enough to see the face of the creature who would forever change the life of Sirius Black.

 _Did it please you ? Made you curious ? Any feedback, question and review is appreciated._


	2. Blood doesn't lie

**Chapitre I**

 **Blood doesn't lie**

Sirius Black had received a lot of names in his life.

The heir of the Noble and Most Ancient Black Family, son of Orion, son of Walburga, son of the Black. And then, later, maybe less glorious ones like blood traitor, unworthy child, play-boy, pretty boy...But even knowing this, never would he have one day thought of being called by this name « murderer ».

Never would he have thought that he would receive it for the murder of the one person he swore he would be brother with his whole life. And never would he have thought that the people he came to think as his parents and friends would be the ones who took away his wand and closed the door of his cell.

It was expected, they whispered, he is a Black after all, it is in his blood...

To think he spend half of his life trying to escape this name, spitting on his education, doing every single thing that wasn't expected of him. Being friends with half-blood, going out with them, going to Gryffindor...When he did all these things he thought that he was brave, but now he felt like he tried to run away from himself his whole life.

Like a snake in lion clothes, or a sinistros that tried desperately to be a puppy...

But in this cell, there was only him. Here he couldn't hide from himself, from his name, or from his blood. Oh, how he remembered when on the firsts months he desperately called the aurors when they passed for their patrols, screaming that he was innocent, that they knew him, they worked with him. And they just laughed at him. Telling him what a good actor he was, what a good Black he was, how manipulation and betrayal was always in him...After all, blood doesn't lie.

After the third year, he grew used to hear them spitting his name. And after the fourth he smiled at it. He was no longer screaming that he was innocent, since he learned that in this world, theses things were of little importance. And innocence was a fickle support against madness and despair, particularly when no one believed in it besides you. But blood wasn't.

And blood became his only truth.

So far from the world, surronded by hatred, and with the visit of death every day, he was still sure of one thing : he was Sirius Black, the third, son of Walburga, son of Orion, heir of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

And if his hope and his naivety had left him, his rage still followed him all these years. And since he didn't have the right anymore for either dreams or good memories, he grasped onto it as an ultimate barrier to madness. Only his rage and his hunger for justice prevented him to become a shadow, and it gave birth to a promise : that he would have back everything that was taken away from him and more.

But even with all his rage, all his hunger that seemed to swallow him entirely, he didn't find any hope of accomplishing this promise. No hope until this night.

This night when he saw from the corner of this dark, wet and grim cell a stone falling backward and eventually sinking into the waters of the North Sea.

The breath was cut from his lungs and he would have smiled, laughed and screamed before the situation if he had the strenght to do it. Then he saw a hand so pale and luminous that for a moment she seemed to lighten the sinister place. As soon as the member disappeared Sirius got down and quickly crawled until the hole was at the same level as his face.

And then he saw her, the creature. The breath definitly quitted his body, but before such a face never suffocation had seemed so sweet. The creature looked like a woman but had the beauty of a star and stood comfortably in the water, her bust to the wind with nothing but long inky and wet hair to cover it.

\- A mermaid...he whispered with a gravelly voice.

The mermaid, who had quickly retreated, came back closer to the wall and put herself face to face to him through the hole. She looked at him in silence before a smile as charming as the rest of her came resting on her lips :

\- You are more resistant than the other, she said, and her voice seemed to control the waves as easily as the hearts. I don't know a lot of sons of men that would be in your state after so much years spent here.

Sirius was dazed for a moment at the sound of her voice. They were taught in school to be wary of this kind of creatures. They were classified dark, like werewolves, and their beauty was known to be the doom of men. If you ever met one, never engage the conversation with her, because they charmed and killed as easily as they breath.

But Sirius tempted not listen to the lessons which had led him here. Especially that right now, having known only darkness for six years, his doom looked like his salvation :

\- What does a creature like you do here? And how do you know me ?

A malicious light appeared in the eyes of the creature :

\- But I don't know you son of man.

She then added in a decontracted manner :

\- Well...I can at least say that I know that you are innocent. A guilty man would be tired to repeat lies after all this time, but a betrayed one...

Sirius eyes grew bigger and his heart stopped beating. After her voice, the eyes of this creature were certainly her most dangerous weapon, they seemed to hold the colors of the waters of every sea and ocean the earth gave birth to, and could make nations go on their knees as much as they could persuade men to drown... Her plump and red lips opened and teeth as white as pearls and sharp as knife were shown :

\- Don't you want to tell me your story, son of man.

Sirius learned quickly that we could say no neither to theses eyes nor to this voice.

§§§

A new routine formed itself for her. She still came at the feet of the tower everyday, but now it was not only to hear but also to see and talk to this man. And her obsession for him seem to grew everyday without her knowing why.

Mermaids weren't touched easily by common things and if they had an evident weakness for jewels and gold, their hearts often stayed cold in front of the living. But for the first time in her long, long existence she was captivated by something, and such a thing didn't happen to her every century. If it was hard to capture the interest of a water creature, it was even harder to make it disappear.

And this, this was more than a mere interest...She was more than just intrigued by this man. She didn't know what fascinated her so, after all, a prisonner had nothing for himself but his dirt, despair and tragic background. But him...under all his dirt was hidden the most beautiful face she had ever seen on a man, under his despair shone more anger and passion than the sky was capable of in his greatest tempest, and only the purest silver, the purest truth was revealed by his eyes.

And pure was the only word that she could think when she saw this man. As if wickedness was unknow to him, as if none of what he was, of what he was feeling was tamed. Eveything about him was raw, and even his anger, his rage and bitterness were pure. Close to him she didn't feel cold, and more, she felt alive.

The raw, non tamed, non sculpted, dangerous life that this man seems to breath and exhale...it was the most beautiful thing that she ever saw. And everytime she was beside him, it felt like being lost in the ocean when the sky and the water were at war and that they battled with waves and thunder. His eyes were thunder, and his voice was just like the waves hitting her body.

She liked to think how it would be wasn't he confined in this cell. First she thought that she would have taken him, she would have drown him with her, and drown this obsession just the same. He would have been her prisonner...Just a kiss and he would have been able to stay alive under the water, with her.

But he wouldn't have been this alive. He wouldn't roar in anger against the people that betrayed him, he wouldn't desire revenge nor be devored by the ambitions that he cultivated. And this simple thought made her first desire turn into dust in her mouth.

That wasn't what she wanted. She didn't wanted him to become a pawn, a simple doll that looked at her with dead eyes. No...She wanted him to look at her with these eyes. This eyes full of life and passion, she wanted them to belong to her even more than pearls and glittering gold.

\- You still didn't told me your name.

She tilted her head on the side and let an amused smile gracing her lips :

\- Well, you didn't tell me yours.

The man raised a brow and closed his eyes. He took a deep breathe before saying in calm voice :

\- Sirius Orion Black.

The mermaid went deadly still. No...It wasn't possible. She quickly wore a seductive and decontracted mask again

\- Black that I know. But what is a Sirius Orion ?

A smile appaeared on the tired face of the man, resting on the wounded lips and wounding them even more :

\- Sirius and Orion are two stars. Sirius...is one of the brightest star in the sky, he said a distant look in the eyes. Don't you name the stars ?

\- Why would we ? They are pretty things in the sky, it is enough to look at them. My race isn't as poetic as yours, charm and beauty isn't something that we like to practice but only a weapon that finished by blending in our blood.

\- So practical...Sirius was also the name of two of my ancestors, I am the third one in the family, and Orion was the name of my father.

There was a moment of silence before Sirius fixed his eyes on the mermaid again. He tried not to look at her too often, it was dangerous, particularly her eyes, and he didn't resist Azkaban madness to fall into a sweeter one. She looked like she knew he was resisting, and it amused her.

\- Do you want to have them back too ?

\- Who ?

\- Your family. Weren't they taken from you too ?

Sirius stayed silent again, looking either in deep reflection or...mourning. A dry smile appeared on his as he said :

\- Yes, they were.

She looked at him, his dark form twisted, the tall body made thin by hunger. Should she...It was dangerous to stay too close to the man without bewitching him, after all he could discover. She narrowed her eyes, he was a Black, this was very dangerous. If he knew only a third of the legends of his family, it wouldn't be good for her. But...why couldn't she ? It would only take a song, just a note to make him become less dangerous than a baby.

\- But why couldn't she bear to see this light in his eyes disappear ?

\- You still didn't tell me your name, he repeated, but this time differently, in a less curious and more calm and imperious tone.

\- No...she immediately started to retreat but it was too late when she saw a very amused smile take place on the face of the prisonner.

\- Stop, he said, raising a hand.

Her eyes opened wide with fear when she felt her body still. A glim of fascination appeared in the eyes of the man as he whispersed :

\- So it was true...When my mother told me theses tales on the House of Black, I thought she was just bragging but...It was true all along, everything is true.

She started to shake her head but he continued, he had understood.

\- Persecuted by humans and white wizards, captured for their desires, a lot of dark creatures came to Salazar Slytherin wanting protection. And the cunning wizard accepted them all : he linked each specie to a family allied to him with magic and marriage and created himself a court of powerful soldiers gifted with the purest magic. To the Blacks he gave creatures of the depths, for their dark hearts and vibrant eyes answered to each other...And the Blacks accepted for the blood of a mermaid is said to be as pure as one of unicorn. Toujours pur, he finished, his voice so low that it was difficult to hear.

\- No, she said, narrowing her eyes, the time of the founders have come to an end. Pureblood families and creatures have now become separate beings and do not respond to each other anymore. I could still drown you if I wanted to...Even this wall couldn't stop me, son of Black.

\- Then please do, Sirius said, his smile growing bigger.

The mermaid pinched her lips turned her face toward the water. And the prisonner had a broken laugh :

\- You could if you wanted...But you don't want to, do you ?

The creature raised her head and hissed menacingly but the prisonner didn't look very impressed and adopted a thoughtful expression :

\- How the link through Black and mermaid is established already ? Oh yes...I think you need a name.

\- You...!

\- I'll call you...

His eyes suddenly got clearer and his smile disappeared as he said in a serious and soft tone :

\- Lumena.

How she wanted to hate him...But at the same time she felt her muscles relax and her blood pounds in her body. The link was calling her and her fascination for this man was becoming something deeper, so heavy on her heart that she couldn't doubt anymore to have one.

He gave her a name...It was finished now, she couldn't return to being one of the numerous pearl of the sea, she couldn't dwell in the darkness anymore.

\- You are not an innocent man, she said through gritted teeth, you tricked me.

\- Did I ? he asked, now looking amused. Well, in my opinion, I was only intelligent enough to make a claim on my legacy. If there is something that I learned here, it is that being innocent alone won't bring you anything, the world will use you and spit on you, they'll leave you in the dark and laugh. An innocent man alone is crushed, but a righteous and just one isn't.

Lumena had a bitter smile :

\- You men are really laughable...Innocent, righteous...what importance does it have in this world ? This whole world is dark, and your entire race is rotten. I do not say that I am better than you, but at least I don't pretend to be what I am not. You always use pretty words and talk of virtues you are incapable of. You speak as if you were God send but all you accomplishes are act of darkness. You respect nothing, you have no order, and the only God you obey to are your petty desires. You say you are different ? Tell me, does not being guilty of one crime really make you an innocent man ?

Sirius stayed silent for a moment, looking into her eyes with an almost wounded expression :

\- Then tell me...What am I ? Tell me you who are so good at reading the heart of men.

\- You are like a boy...You spent your whole life ignoring your duty and only following your heart. And this is where your heart put you in. You are like a spoild little boy who doesn't want to grow up, a little prince who thinks he deserves the world. And this is what makes me mad. What legacy ? Do you even deserve it ? I listened to your story, son of man, and never one second was I touched. Do you know why ? Because a man like you was made to be king, a man like you could have ruled the world...But you chose to stay forever a boy and spitted on life. And now that life spit back on you, what do you do ?

\- What do you want me to do ? He screamed, eyes sending thunder toward her.

\- To stop pretending ! I am a predator, I know what I am, I know why I roam the sea. Is a wolf evil because it accomplish what it was made for ? He isn't, but he doesn't pretend to be a sheep. Because there is nothing more ridiculous than a wolf eating grass and being friend with sheeps. There is something...Something in your eyes so raw and powerful, so pure...But you hide it like everything else. You speak of righteousness ? You can't when you are afraid of the truth. I said you tricked me, and you seached to run away from this. You should have been proud of it, because if it was me, I would have been worse, I would have done worse, I would have bound you and drown you, cut your eyes and treated them like pearls. This is what I am. And you what are you ? You tell me you don't know ?! I want to spit on you, liar. You know what you are, you cannot run away from your own blood.

The eyes of the mermaid were shining more brightly than ever, looking blue flammes lost in a body. Chest raising and falling heavily with anger, her face had lost her seductive expression for one of frightful wrath. How terrifying to think even anger looked charming on this creature's face.

It was the first time that someone was screaming him, was scolding him since his mother. He wanted to laugh, and for the first time of his life he wanted to tell the truth to someone.

\- I tricked you. It is true. And I am a trickster. I tricked everyone, my whole life. I was treated like a little prince, all my childhood, and was raised to be the perfect heir of the Black House. The truth is that it didn't bother me, the madness, the forbidden magic...But the rules, the duties and the responsabilities of it all bothered me. The control they had over me, that didn't please me. And when I met James Potter...he was so carefree. He didn't know anything of the world beside the fun of it. I wanted to be him. To be free like him. So I started to disguise myself...To act at the opposite of what I was supposed to be. And it amused me, how everyone fell for it. I really loved my friends, but sometimes...I had these thoughts. I wanted them to depend on me, and to be devoted to me as much as I was for them...But they couldn't know all of what I was and all the darkness that slept in my mind. They would have thought me mad if they knew...I even thought of killing one time. A student named Severus Snape. I wanted only to frighten him in the beginning but I told myself that if there was an accident, then it wouldn't be such a loss...I knew that I could be cruel. And ruthless. Like a Black.

The body of Lumena relaxed and her eyes softened as she asked in a more calm tone :

\- When was the last time you were Sirius Orion Black ?

\- Too much time for me to remember what being him is like.

Lumena looked for a moment at the slow waves that carressed her body. No...She knew she would regret what she was about to do. But there was something that told her that this encounter was the fruit of a well planned fate, and now that the link was formed she couldn't escape. As the plain routine of her life as a predator was finished, she should at least try to make the rest of her existence as interesting as possible.

\- I could make you remember.

\- You would help me ? asked the man arking an eyebrow.

\- I don't help, she said through gritted teeth. I already told you, I am a predator, it is not in my habits to help the poor and the persecuted.

\- Then how would you call it ?

\- Curiosity. I am giving you a chance to prove me that you are Sirius Black. I am going to get you out of here and follow you for a time, see what you do. If you fail to convince me...I'll kill you, considering the link void as non created by a Black.

\- Charming offer...

\- Do you accept, yes or no ?

Sirius looked at the creature intently. She wasn't mad, she was on the opposite very clear headed, she was only...merciless. She was a predator, and if she discovered him weak, she would suppress him before he could weaken her. But he never was weak and even his current situation wasn't the result of weakness but only of blindness and hypocrisy. If she wasn't here maybe he would have continued to walk on the path of life half blind.

A smile appeared on his lips. He liked her.

\- I accept.


	3. Al'Fard

**Chapter II**

 **Al' Fard**

It had been easy to control the water left on the rocks to make them explode, easy to pull Sirius into the sea, easy to swim dragging the boy as she did so...but never would she have thought that walking would be this awful.

She always knew that mermaid could gain legs after their bond with a wizard but she never had the occasion to actually test some. When she fell for the fifth time, the man completely stopped and looked at her as she took support on the trees to stand. He already gave her the dirty rags that covered his chest so she wouldn't be naked. And even know, with his state imprisonnement and malnutrition obvious, even with the dark bags under his eyes and the dirt only half washed by the sea he still have the beauty of an insolent prince.

"It would be more simple if you would just allow me to carry you."

"I don't want to. I want to learn."

"Then please at least take me as your support." he insisted, looking at her with vibrant grey eyes.

Lumena looked at the arm that was presented to her for a moment before accepting to put her hand on it. Contact with another living was...weird. His skin was as cold as hers but it felt remarquably alive and there was no doubt that this arm was strong before the imprisonnement.

She never quite had the occasion to make contact before. If her sisters always came to her help would she call, and hunted with her on more occasion than one, affection was something that was seldom practised in the depths. In the water everything was dulled wether it was the sounds, the sensations or any other contacts. And now it seemed that she was drowning in new sensations, ever since her feet made contact with the earth, everything came to life.

They had apparated in a forest and crossing it was a trial but also a magnificient experience. All theses colors, theses birds, the humidity of the earth under her feet...She never had in all her life the occasion to be so close to it, to actually be able to touch it.

"Where are we going ?" She finished by asking.

"To someone that will help." he simply said.

§§§

Alphard Black was a proud man.

He took pride of his name, handsome apparence, good situation but above all of his remarcably clear and reasonnable mind, something that was seldom found in the Black House.

And his clear mind was probably one of the main reason of his life in solitude, far away from most of the member of his family. For even the pride he took of his ancestor's name and the love he had for his blood couldn't make him go against his most basics survival instincts. So if he didn't cut ties with them, let's just say that he didn't run after them either.

Like every Black he had his own fortune and vaults in addition to the family one, and his reasonnable nature made him choose to live quietly in one of his residence. Silence and solitude were always what corresponded to him the most and even now he felt like the seasonals socials gatherings of the Blacks were a pain without whom he could have lived perfectly well.

And if Alphard Black was quite a bit reasonnable, he was even more practical like any good Slytherins.

He never did a reckless move nor did he accomplish an act that could have brought him any kind of hassle. He saw problems come from far and learned to recognise and escape from them before they could destroy his precious and hard earned peace.

So this day, when he saw his favorite and normaly imprisonned nephew at his door with an half naked woman he didn't need to think about the situation more than a few seconds before he qualified it of the hated word : problematic.

His ever handsome and rebellious nephew looked like a shadow in comparison to his former self with his sunken cheeks, dirt covered body and unkept hair. Never would he have dreamed of seeing the son of Walburga Black looking like this.

"Uncle " said the young man in a broken voice.

"No." Alphard cutted. "Inside. Now."

Alphard looked at the couple who ushered tiredly inside the manor, and he let his eyes fall on the young lady that followed Sirius closely. He remarked in a distracted way that she was remarcably well made before she raised her eyes from the ground and he lost himself in the most inhuman blue. Immediatly it seemed like the breath was cutted from his lungs.

A mermaid.

Now, the situation was proving itself to be very problematic.

§§§

Lumena touched the edges of the bath with a curious finger.

The bath of the Blue bathroom in Alphard's manor was the biggest one, with a round form and antiques vases sculpted on the wall above it, distributing water. The water of the bath was strange with its sweet smell, she decided, but not unpleasant. She didn't have much occasions to swim into clear water as they were often the most frequented and the change was welcome.

She looked at her tail. It would appear after a time of submersion in water and disappear as soon as her body would dry. She knew that the gift of this alone time in the bathroom did not come from benevolent motives, and that the man named Alphard wanted to speak with Sirius without her being within hearing distance.

It was well thought, she thought with a smile, a very nice way to dismiss a unwanted guest. But her specie had more than one secret, and like most of them this one was buried in water. She let her body sink into the water until she was totally immerged and immediately the sound of every actions around her became clear.

House elves were preparing dinner in the kitchen, the wind was blowing from a window in the room neighbor to her's and in one of the numerous living room a discussion between two men was taking place.

She closed her eyes and concentrated only on the sound of their voices :

"What did you do, this time ?"asked the older man.

"This is the problem" she heard Sirius say in an angry and tired voice. "I didn't do anything, all this time, and this is what conducted me into this hellish place. Or at least this is what she thinks..."

"She ? The mermaid ?"

"Yes, the mermaid.""he answered tightly.

Aphard sighed and she heard the sound of a body sitting on a couch and another one of a liquid reemplishing two glass of crystal :

"What did you gave her in order to get out of here ?"

"A means to cut her boredom, I think" Sirius answered, posing a minute to drink a little. "I promised that I would let her kill me if I proved not to be Black enough for her."

"That's it ?"

"What ? Does my possible death does not seem to be enough for you ?"

"No, not like this. A creature like her would not take the risk of walking into this world only to have the occasion to kill a Black."

An intelligent man, she thought with a smile.

"Why would she accept then ?" Sirius demanded curiously.

"I don't know yet...But the promise to kill a man won't be enough to keep her here, he said in a thoughtful voice. And you already have enough problems without a predator set on killing you. You are a wanted man and if your name isn't cleared soon, they will send the dementors after you."said the older man toughtfully.

"This is why I am coming to you, uncle Alphard. I need to at least have a trial."

There was a moment a silence before the voice of Alphard cut it again :

"I won't be able to do it alone."

"I know."

"I am not the Black House Patriarch."continued Alphard.

"I know."Sirius repeated.

"And with your situation and your past...allegiances your return in the Black family would be ...well, let's say that you wouldn't be very welcome. You didn't bring anything but trouble to the Black family and today, the family is in a difficult position and the male line is fading out...You would have to prove that your heart lay entirely with the family and that you could be the heir you were meant to be. You would need to bring a miracle for..."

The dry sound of a crystal glass put on one of the numerous table of the living room made itself heard before Alphard continued his tone becoming incredule :

"Crazy boy...The mermaid...you want to bring her with you, right ?"

"Well" answered Sirius in a calm tone "she did say that she would follow me around for a while."

"And here I thought Gryffindor had stole all your thinking ability...Your idea is brilliant, I have to recognise it and no doubt that a lot would bow in front of a bound with a creature that we weren't associated with since the times of Merlin himself. But, this is also an incredibly foolish thing to think that you can manipulate a mermaid."warned Alphard.

"Oh but I don't think I can...What I know is that she is curious and wants to play and feel, and another thing that I know is that I was never one to back done from a game, or one to loose it. She said she wanted me to proove her that I was a real Black, and this is precisely what I will do."

Alphard sighed :

"When do you want to go ? The news of your escape will already be printed everywhere by tomorrow morning."

"Soon. But first we need to establish a plan and...and I have to go somewhere."

"Where do you...? Oh, Sirius you will be the death of me."

She could almost hear the wounded lips crack into a boyish smile :

"I always was your favorite."

Another silence followed this statement before Alphard responded softly :

"You always were."

§§§

Lumena sat on the bed of one of the guest room, quietly drying her legs as she took in the luscious decoration around her. The Blacks were true royalty. Even centuries after their glory they were still living like princes.

She had heard about silk sheets and had steal some from a mechant's boat but they were ruined soon after entering too deeply into the waters. To feel their softeness against her skin was truly pleasant. The silk sheets, the covers in pure egyptian cotton, the walls and floors covered with marbles and onyx...Maybe she would stay in this world for a while, for it seemed the life it could offer was far more agreeable than the cold darkness of the depths.

She heard the sound of feets approaching but didn't made a movement to cover her body when a man opened the door. She gave a look at the intruder from the corner of her eyes and raised an eyebrow in front of the new appearance of Sirius Black. He was cleaned from all the prison's dirt, shaved, his hair was combed backward and still wet and his clothes were one of a young lord.

She was right. This man was surely the most handsome human that she ever saw in all her life, as if he was the living incarnation of the term of Black heir, and even the strange glint in his eyes, the hallow cheeks and the starved body couldn't hinder that.

She looked at the dress that he carried on his right arm before looking back at her legs and continuing to meticulously dry her body. She saw him tighten his fists and advert his eyes in front her naked form and hide her smile. He said, closing his eyes :

"You could have said you weren't presentable."

"But I am always presentable" she answered in a light tone. "What is this ?"

"A dress. You need to wear it."

She looked at him for a moment without saying anything before standing up, crossing the room until she was right in front of him. She then spread her arms and raised an eyebrow at him :

"Then put it on me."

Sirius narrowed his eyes as if waiting for a trap and her smile became bigger.

"Why are you looking at me in that way ? It's not as if I knew how to put it on myself."

The young man evalutated her again before setting on putting the tissue on her. It was almost a pity to cover her body as it would be to do so with a marble statue in a museum, he thought in a distract way. Nothing looked vulgar nor lewd on her, not even nakedness, as if she was beyond theses basic notions. But he had to admit that the simple and white dress was a perfect compliment of her albaster skin and seemed to make her hair even more black and her eyes shine even more.

He quickly attached it in the back before crouching before her, putting silently a pair of silver colored escarpin on the floor in front of her delicate feets.

She grimaced a bit before sliding her feets into the shoes. Their heels weren't high and looked like they were made of glass and the front was sightly pointy ornated with what seemed to be gems of pale color, blue and transparent, shining with elegance before her eyes.

Lumena looked the shoes with attention and was tempted to discretly crack the heel and snach the gems before hiding them in a box under her bed. When she raised her head she saw the amused gaze of Sirius who seemed to have guessed her intentions :

"You don't have to look at them like this. They won't disappear, they are yours now. But if you want to, you can still hide them in a dark place when we come back."

"Come back ? Do we have to go somewhere ?" She asked in a indifferent tone.

"Yes."

"Where ?"

"To see someone very precious."

What was a precious person ? She asked herself quietly as she put her hand on the arm of Sirius taking him as a support as she walked out of the bedroom. She looked at the regal profile of the man before declaring in a very calm voice :

"I heard everything you said to that man. There wasn't even a moment where you were an innocent man, was there ?"

Sirius didn't look very surprised with her statement and neither was he with her question. He stayed silent before smiling softly and saying just as calmly :

"No, I suppose there wasn't."

§§§

What was a precious person ?

Lumena couldn't bring an image that could explain it well enough for her as Alphard had made them apparate in an alley boredered by houses which were almost identical to one another, with the same white façade and green back garden.

She didn't really like apparating, it wasn't pleasant and her stomach didn't agree with it but after walking for hours she was thankful for any means that prevented her from using her legs. Sirius walked to a house where was written 4 privet drive close to the door. She walked uneasily to stand close to him and Alphard joined them quickly.

Sirius took a deep breath before knocking at the door. What was a precious person ? Well if it was precious, then it had to be pretty. And if it was pretty...She looked at her shoes thoughtfully. If it was pretty, she could always steal it.

§§§

Harry Potter was no one important, no one precious.

He wasn't particularly pleasant physically, he was too small, too scrawny, had eyes and clothes that were too big...No he wasn't a child that could make the head turns and the ladies coo, or that you could immediately forgive just looking in his big and beautiful eyes.

Maybe this was why nobody forgave him when he did the wrong things. And maybe he didn't deserved forgiveness since in his uncle point of view he did nothing but the wrong things. As a consequence he learned quickly to ask for forgiveness but to never demand it for himself.

He also learned to keep his eyes down since they weren't pleasant either, too deep, too adult, too desperate to belong to a seven year old child. Invisibility became like a second nature for him and the darkness were the only one that didn't reject him.

In his cupboard in privet drive he grew accustumated to the darkness and its creatures. The spiders didn't make him afraid anymore, nor did the night or the monsters that founded refugee in it. But secretly he dreamed of a world where Harry Potter wouldn't exist, and where he would be someone precious. Where his hard work and efforts would be rewarded and where there would be someone to tell him that he was loved and that he could be proud and keep his head up.

He dreamed of a world of beauty and that would smell like home.

On the days where they could go the library with the school, he devored books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charles Dickens'ones. And he too dreamed of having a golden ticket that could take him away, to have someone that could come to save him from this world. He too dreamed of becoming someone with a family and a name that you could wear with a smile.

But Harry Potter was no one, he had no family, and inside this proper house of Privet Drive, weither it was from the slaps of his uncle's meaty hands, always there to correct his numerous mistakes, from the kitchen where there was always work for him or from the differents chores that rythmed his day, there were no escape. Even at school, his demons seemed to follow him and the adults that should have protected him became the strict guards of his prison.

The only escape that he founded was in his dreams and prayers. So he always waited for the night, who was his ever present savior from the labor of the day. She offered him confort, peace, and a place to dream. When he closed his eyes, his ratty covers could be silk and the dirt that sometimes fell from the pressure of the stairs a rain of gold.

But that night, the quiet of the dark was cutted by a loud knock on the door, and the Dursley family were waken from their peaceful slumber. Harry heard the groans of his uncle as he descend loudly the stairs and the piercing voice of his aunt that asked herself who could come visit at this hour of the night.

Vernon grumbled something about beggars and sending them off and opened the door, apparently ready to send whoever it was on his way. In his cupboard, Harry was also intrigued by the identity of the people who had interrupted his dreams, and was surprised when he didn't heard his uncle raise his voice as soon as the door was open.

"Ho my...To what do I how the pleasure...I mean I don't think that we were presented."

"Are you Vernon Dursley ?" Asked a man.

The voice of the man who had asked the question was deep, and there was something warm in it, like a hot chocolate in winter, but also something that commanded respect and more imperceptively something hollow and broken.

"Ho yes that would be me, Mr...?" asked Vernon.

"Could we enter ?" intervened another male voice.

"Yes, of course, please, enter into my humble house."

Vernon Dursley let people enter his house at almost midnight on a week day ? There was only one explication : these people must be very rich. Harry was curious now so he silently opened the door of his cupboard and pressed himself against it.

First he only saw shoes and clothed legs : there were two men and one woman and from what he saw they effectively looked very rich. He didn't know in what were made the pants of the men, but it looked better than even the most exprensive costume of his uncle. And the shoes of this lady...were there gems on it ? He stood as tall as he could and raised his eyes to the faces of the guests, his eyes opening wide as he did.

The first man looked too thin, had dark circles and a strange almost mad glint in his eyes but he had an undoubtly handsome face, maybe the most handsome he had ever see. Never had he thought such a vibrant shade of silver would exist in the eyes of someone. The other man stood close to him and had the same eyes but less savage, more disciplined and older. He shared the same handsome features but didn't quite equal the first in term of beauty and Harry doubted that such a thing would ever be possible for anybody. And the woman...Harry would never have thought that this kind of beauty existed in the human and plain world. Theses were the kind of faces that could only exist in his dreams, beauty like that didn't exist in the ugly reality of privet drivet.

The first man looked around a bit before saying in a calm voice :

"We came here to see your nephew, he is a young boy of seven years old, he is called Harry Potter."

They came for him ? Harry asked himself, wide eyed before what was happening in front of him. The smile on Vernon Dursley's face crumbled and his eyes became darker :

"I have no idea who Harry Potter is, but there is no one under this name that live under this roof. I think you went to the wrong house."

"And I don't think so" snarled the man. "I don't have the time to play with you, so you will tell me where he is right now."

The silver eyes sent thunder and the other man was standing very straight, as if ready to intervene at any moment, only the lady seemed to be calm and didn't actually look at Vernon at all, no, her eyes seemed on the opposite to be fixed on... a white cupboard's door under the stairs.

"Yes, I thought that much" murmured Vernon, his porcin eyes narrowed. "I knew that there was something fishy with you pounding at my door at this hour of the night, something that no proper man would do...I should have immediately knew that you were one of them, he almost spitted. You came for nothing, because I won't tell anything about the boy !"

"You..."started the silver eyed man, almost shaking with anger.

"Sirius" intervened the lady, putting an elegant hand on his arm.

"The man" apparentely Sirius, turned around and stopped his eyes on the cupboard that the blue eyed woman was staring at.

"I saw two green gems shining...they must be hiding something precious" she said slowly, her eyes never leaving the cupboard.

Behind the slight opening of the door Harry started to shake. No...he had been founded, now he would be punished. Without waiting for any of the men to move, the lady walked on shaky legs until she was in front of the door of the cupboard. Harry backed down quickly until he fell on the ratty mattress that served as bed as the door opened.

She looked him, fascinated, and he felt his eyes become wider as she was even more magnificient seen up close. She looked surprised before his appearance and and murmred :

"A child..."

As soon as he heard the word, Sirius crossed the room almost running until he was in front of the cupboard with her. Alphard got his wand out and quickly bounded the muggles and putting a silencio on them before joining Sirius.

The man only took in the appearance of Harry from his too big pajamas, to his wounded lips, awfully thin and small body and to the mattress he was sitted on and the broken toys around him to understand.

If Harry was frightened when his uncle was angry, it was nothing compared to this man. The way his whole face darkened, his lips pressing against another and storm playing in his eyes...It was like he saw the face of anger itself.

He tightened his fists and the whole house shook as the lights started to explode. He then took a deep breath and turned to face Vernon before saying in a very calm voice :

"I'll kill you."

"No, Sirius !" Intervened the other man. "No ! This isn't the time for this kind of things. You must think, there is something bigger behind this..."

"Bigger than this ? Bigger than this ?! What can be bigger than learning that my godson has been treated like an house elf, living in a cupboard and starved by muggles ?! What ?! And how could Dumbledor...?!" raged Sirius, almost pulling on his hair.

The face of Sirius paled as a glint of understanding appeared in his eyes. Of course. Dumbledor had betrayed him, left him rot in Azkaban, but there was something bigger behind it. He knew that Regulus would join the death eaters and most surely die or be imprisoned because of a mission and Sirius...Sirius was also put into jail, as were the pureblood heirs of the most important families, the most influential ones.

He passed his hand in his hair, his breath labored as he looked at his godson once more. He looked exactly like James but he had the eyes of Lily and his scar was perfectly visible on his little forehead. Sirius knew the prophecy Dumbledor had told them so that they could protect themselves and Harry against the Dark Lord, so he knew that Harry was the only one with the power to destroy Voldemort.

Harry was precious...So why was he treated like this ? He thought hard and then it hit him so bad that he took a step backward. Of course...How he, Sirius Black, had been thankful of Dumbledor to have participated to his emancipation and to have "saved" him from his household. So thankful that he started to work for him, becoming one of the most powerful auror of the century, powerful enough to worry Dumbledor and be quickly put on the side. But he had accepted, he would have accepted anything from the man he considered as his grandfather.

And Harry, how grateful he would have been to be saved from this hellish place by Dumbledor. So grateful, so thankful that he would do anything for this man that was easily respected and from whom affection was seen as an honor. He would have done anything, even becoming a perfect soldier, a sheep for slaughter in Dumbledor's war.

"He wanted Harry to be easy to manipulate" murmured Sirius in a hollow voice. "He did this to me, the savior stuff. He was going to do this to him too, so Harry could be his perfect soldier for the war..."

Alphard put a thoughtful hand on his chin :

"If you are right, then this house must be under surveillance. And then, it would be impossible for Harry to go anywhere without Dumbledor knowing it, or even to live without him controlling everything and..."

Alphard stopped as he took in Lumena who disappeared from the entrance, being now sitted on the minuscule mattress with the little boy close to her, examining every part of his body with great fascination. Of course...Why hadn't he tought of it ? If there was something that drew the fascination of a mermaid more than gold and gems, then it would be children. Most of them had never seen one, but stories of their innocence and purity charmed them more than the whitest pearl.

If they gave her a child, no doubt that the mermaid would stay and love him as a tresor. And if...Alphard looked Sirius from the corner of his eyes. This rituel was complicated and impossible to be done between two wizards but with the blood of a mermaid...The blood of a mermaid was as pure as the blood of a unicorn and cleaned all the impurity that it encontered. If this boy was drained from his blood and received the one of a Black and a mermaid, he would be...the most powerful wizard that came across the earth since the times of knights and Merlin.

A smile appeared on his lips. A mermaid and an heir with the purest blood ever seen would enter the Black family, a new ere would start, and for theses new additions Sirius would immediately have his position as heir back. And he, Alphard Black...

His smile grew and he put a calming hand on the shoulder of his nephew :

"Calm down Sirius, I have a solution. I have a solution to all our problems. Everything will go well, very well..."

 **I hope you liked it !**

 **Review ?**


	4. Altair

**Chapitre III**

 **Altair**

 _Thanks to everybody who review, favor and follow this story ! I hope you will also like this chapter !_

 _Thanks and kisses to SkylerKnight and Shunshu, I am really happy to have enthusiastics comments ! And to Rebellious One, I will answer you with a yes, mermaid blood cleanses everything, even dark magic and for the rest stay tuned and follow you will be happy I think !_

 _Good read !_

Harry couldn't believe what was happening to him. In less than an hour his life had shifted more than it had in all his life. He asked himself several times if this was the reality and if he wasn't the happy prisonner of one of his dreams. But the sensations he had were too clear to be compared to the dulled ones his imagination brought him.

Maybe he had finally gone crazy and was having theses hallucinations that he once red about. After all, this lady, this woman who sat beside him, who willingly touched him and who talked to him with this enchanting voice, couldn't be real. She was too beautiful, she smelt too good, her skin was too soft...Such things, such persons were to perfect to enter into Harry's reality. His reality was made of dirt and darkness, of a dark sky without any stars to bring light to it.

And her, this woman, she was like the moon coming to illuminate and chase the shadows that surronded his life.

"Child, what is a precious thing like you doing in this tiny and dirty room ?" She asked softly, her ocean eyes never straying from his.

"This is where I usually stay after my chores, Ma'am" he answered as politely as he could.

"But why ? Do they hide you, tresor, so that no one can steal you ?" She said, narrowing her eyes.

Harry almost wanted laugh, but, not knowing how she would take it, he settled for a sheepish smile "I'm no tresor, Ma'am, no one would want to steal me."

"But you are." she insisted.

She passed her hand through his messy and dirty black hair and murmured with a thoughtful gaze "If they don't want you...I could always steal you from them. You could come with me if you wanted to."

"Go with you ?" asked Harry almost dazed with the possibility of following this woman, this living dream.

"I don't think that it will be necessary Lumena. I already talked to Sirius, the boy is coming with us and he knows what to do" intervened the older man.

"Uncle, this is mad" opposed Sirius with a pained look. "You are asking me to kill the last part of James and Lily, to extinguish an entire family..."

"I am asking you to save _our_ family of extinction, to resurrect _our_ glory and to give this poor boy a life that he wouldn't even have in his wildest dreams !" replied the man, furrowing his eyebrows as his powerful voice covered Sirius's. "I am asking you to _kill_ the weakness that was put inside you. I am asking you to _extinguish_ the boy you played being and to become the Sirius Black you were born to be. And you, what do you say ?"

The lady looked very interested by the conversation and had her eyes fixed on Sirius's form. The silver eyed man looked conflicted for a moment, his eyes going from Harry to his uncle before he closed them in what looked like resignation. Immediately he crossed the room to go to the cupboard and without a word took the child into his arms and carried him outside of the house as the woman followed them with a smile on her face.

The older black haired man looked very satisfied by his decision and as they passed by him to go out, he pressed a hand on the shoulder of his nephew. "You understand that what I must do, don't you, Sirius ? I am doing all this for the family" continued Alphard.

Sirius looked at him from the corner of his eyes, his expression blank as he looked at the house before a dry smile appeared on his face. "Don't worry for me, uncle. I have come to understand that guilt and regret were burden that a Black couldn't permit himself to carry."

Everything was happening so fast then that Harry couldn't say how he got out of the house, how he finished in the arms of the man called Sirius...From this moment he couldn't remember anything but the soft look in the eyes of this man dressed in all black, and of this voice as he said in his low and rugged voice "Close your eyes, Harry."

And he closed them.

§§§

When Harry opened his eyes, he had the impression to wake up inside the most beautiful dream.

Around him, everything was shining with a strange and dark beauty, from the old tapestry on the wall, the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the soft and embroided carpet under his feets or even the dignified portraits looking at him intensely from the walls, as if they were really looking at him...

Harry gasped when a man furrowed his brows while looking intently in his eyes. "Alphard, what are you going to do with this half-blood boy ?"

He spoke, the portrait actually spoke. Harry retreated quickly until his back came in contact with the warm and hard body of Alphard Black. The hands of the man fell heavily on his shoulders as he said in a very calm tone "Noble Phineas, I am going to make him a Black."

The man in the portrait furrowed his brows again and looked like he was going to protest before his eyes fell on Sirius who was helping the mermaid sit on one of the couch. Immediately his eyes glowed strangely and his lips stretched in a wicked way as he spoke in a sugary tone. "A lot of the members of family underestimate you, Alphard. But I always knew that that your ambitions would bring back the glory of the House."

Alphard smiled back to the portrait and was going to respond to his ancestor before Lumena intervened, opening her arms "Give me back the child, son of man."

Harry felt his eyes widen when he understood that this dream like woman wanted to have him back in her arms. He felt his lips stretch in the biggest smile he ever made and moved to go to her but the hands of the man kept him in place. "Not so soon, little one. First, we have to make some things clear. Right, Sirius ?"

The man nodded solemnly and left the side of the woman, crossing the room before crouching in front of the little boy "We weren't presented yet, Harry, were we ?" he said, a strange and sad light illuminating his silver eyes. "I am Sirius Black, your godfather."

The boy looked at the man with incredulous eyes, his mouth open as he tried to process what he just heard. This man, this gorgeous man with a too thin body and a regal but tired face, this man who could have belonged to the legend of these old and forgotten books was actually part of his life. This man had a part in his past, and if he brought him here, then it had to be that he wanted to have a part in his future. That he had a future that wasn't a dirty cupboard.

It was like he became the light and hope of Harry's dusty reality. "Does it mean...did you know my parents ?"

The man let his eyes close slowly as he answered "Yes, I knew them, I knew them very well. We went to school together, worked together and always shared a meal on the sundays." he said with a smile. "They were two of the best wizards I ever knew"

"Wizards ?" Harry asked with with wide eyes "My parents weren't wizards, they were impulsive drunkards, and they died into a car accident because they were good for nothings" he recited.

Sirius looked at him with a furious expression, grasping his face between his two hands. "What are you saying ?! Who told you that ?!"

The young boy looked at him surprised "My uncle and my aunt told me their stories, they always made sure, I didn't forget it."

"No..." Sirius shaked his head "No...this isn't true, this isn't who they were, and this isn't who you are, you-..."

"Who he is doesn't have any special importance, Sirius, remember that" intervened Alphard impatiently. "What is important is what the world try to make him be and what he could be."

Harry turned to look at the handsome face of the older male "What do you mean ?" he said as the man looked straight into his green eyes. Alphard had a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and sitted on a couch bringing the child to sit on his knees. "You see, little one, you parents were some kind of...well, soldiers in our world. But the ennemy they fought was much stronger than them, and one night he killed them." Harry gasped, trembling into the arms of the man. "The truth is that they were used by a very influent man into a war that wasn't theirs"

The boy opened and closed his mouth for a time before furrowing his eyebrows "But how...how do you know all that ?"

"Because he used me too." cutted Sirius standing again before the child. "Harry the only reason I didn't came to take you from your aunt and uncle before was because the same man had me put in jail. He accused me of the murder of your parents, but the truth was that he only wanted to dispose of me, of my name. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you ?"

Harry furrowed his brows as his stunned mind tried to process everything the men were saying. His parents weren't drunkards, they were some kind of magical soldiers, and his magnificient godfather never abandonned him but was put in prison by a mad man who wanted to use him too. Was this really his life ? At this moment he had the impression of being the hero of one of the adventure novel he loved so much to read in secret. Everything was so confusing, his mind didn't seem to be able to focus on even one detail, for example "But...aren't wizards the evil ones in the stories ?"

Sirius had a smile at that passed a hand through Harry's hair. "Magic isn't evil, this is something wonderful, and the people that have it in them are gifted, not strange. You must have done some strange things before, maybe made some objects fly or turned one of your teachers hair blue, right ? Well this is magic, in this room, we are all able to use magic and well..." he looked at Lumena from the corner of his eyes. "Her case is a bit particular but...what I mean is that you are part of a world so marvelous, so amazing that even in your wildest dreams you couldn't imagine all the wonder it could offer".

Harry was completely charmed by the words of this man and his bright eyes. This man was not only offering him hope, but a life, a life in a magnificient world where what he could do wouldn't be freaky but a gift. He could actually be his own hero, the hero of his life and not be condemned to be the victim of it. "And what do I have to do to be part of this world ?"

Immediately Alphard turned the boy around to face him and said to him in a excited voice. "Now, this is the kind of things that I like to hear, my boy ! You see, our world is amazing but also a very dangerous place to live in for you, some really bad men are after you and would not stop at anything to put their hands on you. It actually wouldn't be safe for Harry Potter to go into the wizarding world right now..." finished Alphard turning in face away in the perfect act of sadness.

And it worked. Panicked the little boy put his tiny hands on the shoulders of the man, gripping the black clothes as strongly as he could as he said quickly "But then what can I do ! I have no where else I can nor want to be and...and I cannot be anybody else but Harry Potter..."

The older man hided a smile and let his hand pat the head of the boy "But you can, my boy, right Sirius ?"

Sirius straightened and clenched his jaw, before nodding tightly.

Lumena who listened patiently to the exchange between the men narrowed her eyes as she understood what they were insinuating. "So this is what you want to do from the beginning..."

Alphard and Sirius turned to face her, no hint of guilt present in any of their faces. "You want to use this kid for your own gain...The rotten nature of the heart of men really knows no boundaries" she continued with a smile.

Alphard straightened up and gave a gentle push in the back of Harry making him stumble in the direction of the mermaid. She immediately rose from her sit to steady him, taking the boy in her arms her face softening before his large and innocent eyes.

The older Black let a satisfied smile appear on his lips as he opened his arms in a diplomatic gesture "But I had no intentions to trick you, my dear. I had in mind to make a proposition that would prove to be very advantageous for us three. This boy is the key to prove to our family that Sirius is worthy of trust and that he can bring back glory to our name but you wouldn't be left out of the picture. You would become the wife of my nephew and the child would belonged to you, as would most of the tresors, gems and gold that goes with the name of Black. Plus, you would be welcomed in a place where your nature is a sign of prestige and would be like a queen in the mortal world."

Lumena turned her cold and enchanting eyes on the figure of Alphard and said in a dry tone "And I would have to share the child and become one of the tresors that goes with the name of Black. Why would I accept a cage like the golden one you are creating for me when I could just kill you both and take the child with me ?"

Alphard didn't look frightened or panicked in the slightest and his polite smile was ever present on his handsome face "First because you don't have much choice, my dear. The boy cannot live under water and where would you go on earth with the murder of a proeminent pureblood like me under your name ? Wizards aren't a weak race and you know that, soon enough they would capture you and put you down like an animal under the pretext that you are a dangerous and dark non-human. And then little Harry would go back under the claws of whoever wants to use him for their benefit. Second, because I don't feel like you want to go back in the oceans, you look quite charmed by our world and the name of Black would give you on a platter the occasion to live the worldly life in it's finest. Third, because we would take care of the future of the boy and give him the best life he could ever wish. And finally, because the boy would be yours, completely yours by the most powerful claim that ever exist : blood. You could take the child away and keep him, but he would never be your child...no matter what your race is, you need to be two to make a child."

None of her emotions transpired on her face, so much that we could ask ourselves if she had some if it wasn't for her hands which had the Harry's shoulders in a tight grip. The man seemed to have thought of everything really well, no flaws were present in his plan.

She let her eyes fall on the boy again. She could always choose to ignore him and carry on her stealing plan, but what then ? She didn't know how to take care of a little child, she never had one before, she didn't even knew what they looked like before meeting this one. But she wanted one. She was always fascinated by the legends that surrounded the race of men when they weren't fully developped, the innocence and trust that surrounded them and the abundant love they felt for the one who gave birth to them.

From the corner of her eyes she looked at Sirius. Well, she supposed he wasn't the worst specimen to share blood with...And like that, wouldn't he and his eyes be all hers also ? She was told that two people that were married under one name belonged to each other. So his eyes would belonged to her ? His rage and his passion too, she supposed. The more she thought about it, the more interesting the proposition became. She had wanted to steal Sirius in the beginning, but he wouldn't have survived far from his world and know she had the possibility to have one man and one child with a life of comfort far from the cold waters she knew.

And if things didn't go well, she could always slaughter them all.

A charming smile took place on her face as she said in a sweet tone "I accept your proposition."

Alphard still had a polite expression but a glint of suspicion was shining in his eyes, and this glint was mirrored in his nephew's silver ones. They were wary of her and of her quick acceptance, she thought, amused.

She hugged the boy more tightly against her cold body. Well, they should.

§§§

Lumena laid on the bed of the room that was officialy gifted to her, her eyes fixed on the ceiling and it's beautiful paintings. The boy surprised her, when they told him what they were going to do, he wasn't scared but positively elated. He wasn't afraid of magic, nor of pain and was just immensely grateful of this new life that was given to him.

He made her think of her own eagerness to finally live. She wasn't afraid to take risk either, nor of pain or of trials if it meaned that she could feel as strongly as Sirius did, even for just a minute.

"Are you okay ?"

She turned her head around and saw the Black heir, pale and weak against the door of the room. He didn't stand on his feet long, letting himself fall on the couch in front of the bed.

An average man had between 5 and 6 liters of blood, an average woman between 4 and 5, and a child approximatevely 3, but the boy was so malnourished and his body was in such a bad condition that he only had 2,5. Alphard drained completely Harry of his blood, and replaced it directly by 1,5 liters of Sirius's blood and 1 of her's.

"Alphard said that we shouldn't move around for several hours" she said indifferently.

"Do I look like I care ?" drawled Sirius, raising a trembling hand to pass in his dark hair. "I asked a question, didn't I ?"

The mermaid had a smile before she said "Why would you care ? You had what you wanted all along, didn't you ? I saw how you looked at the boy, the longing in your eyes, you wanted to steal him and to make him your son for a long time..."

The black heir's silver eyes fixed themselves in hers as he said in a calm and confident voice. "Yes, I did."

As soon as he pronounced the words, Lumena felt the air change in the room. All of her instincts were in alert, as if in the presence of a great danger. That wasn't logical, there was nothing in the room and in front of her Sirius was greatly disminished and couldn't possibly attack her, nor did he have any reason to.

But her instincts never failed her and there were something strange in his eyes like his...mask dropped. There was a glint of madness in his eyes and a smile stretched his lips, illuminating his handsome face. He looked like a mad king. Like a Black.

"What did you do ?" she asked warily.

He laughed, his head falling back before breaking in the biggest smile she had ever seen him wear. "Don't you understand ?" he started in a joyous tone. "This is exactly as you said, I have what I wanted for a long time ! Did you really think that I could spend six years in this hell hole and still not know who I am ? Not know myself and still think that I was some sheep waiting for its herd ? No my dear...No...When you are in front of black walls and that the only thing rometely human that you see everyday is your own face in a dirty puddle of water on the ground, you finish by accepting yourself. I always tried to hide from myself, and from my desires. I knew how wrong it was for me to be envious of James and of the fact that he had a wife and a son as I felt so...alone. But not anymore. Why would I try to shield theses persons who have abandonned and betrayed me from my desires, from my wrath, my...revenge."

So this was the true face of Sirius Black, she thought as she looked cautiously at the man. She should have know that the curse of the Black House was never far, madness ran in their blood as smoothly as beauty adorned their traits and gold fell from their hands. "And where do I stand in this...plan ?"

"Well" he started in a joyous tone. "You were destined to be my partner, after all, you founded me at my darkest and followed me since then. That will continue...forever."

"But I could still go. I could leave you if I wanted to." she said through gritted teeth.

"Ho but that's the beautiful part of it !" laughed Sirius "You can't."

She furrowed her brows. "What do you mean ?"

"We were legally married today. My uncle introduced you as my wife and he was the witness for your acceptance and mine. You voluntary accepted the position and our marriage was made valid the same day with the conception of our child, Harry...Our blood was even shared through it. And as you know, divorce is something only muggles are capable of as magic bounds cannot be broken. Plus, the bound that I formed with you was thus completed and cannot be broken anymore, can it ? Lumena Black. Isn't it beautiful, we are now bounded for all eternity ?"

Lumena felt herself shaking with anger and disbelief as she looked the confident and handsome face illuminated by an amused smile. "You planned it from the beginning..."

"Of course, I did." he assured calmly. "I wanted you to be mine from the moment I saw you but I knew that I had to be careful with how I did it. So I simply played the role that I played all my life : the good and lost heir of the Black family. The only one who escaped the madness curse and was different. You fell into it and as a consequence would never consider me capable of...how did you said it ? Ho yes, tricking you like that. Not a Black enough to do that, right ?"

"Why ?" she breathed.

"Because we are more alike than you think. I don't know of the darkness and cold of the oceans, but I know darkness and I know cold. I know solitude, I know madness and I know this longing for the light. And because in this hell hole, you were the light that brought me peace."

"Stop trying to charm me, son of Black" she gritted. "You are crazy and your heart is an avid, dark and deep deep thing."

"Then wouldn't it be like your beloved oceans ? Seeming like a dream when graced by the sun but only you know what the depths really look like..."

Lumena let a smile grace her lips as she turned to got out of the bed. She walked unsteadily until she arrived in front of Sirius and there she let herself fall on him, gripping the back of his hair to raise his head so that she could fully look into his eyes.

"I think that you forgot who you chased, Black." she started her tone as cold as the depths. "The ocean isn't my beloved. I am the ocean. I may have entered the cell you prepared for me, but you will share it with me and I do not think your understand very well with what you imprisonned yourself. You are as much my prisonner as I am yours and know that my heart is even deeper, even more avid and pityless than yours !"she almost raged.

Arking one of his perfect black brow, his smile ever present on his face, the man only said "Never have I met a cellmate so charming."

§§§

Everything was dark around him and his eyelids felt as heavy as stone, but that didn't bother him, he knew darkness and he knew of the heaviness of a tired body.

But when he opened his eyes dirt, spiders and faded wall paint weren't what greeted him. His weary lips stretched in a smile when he saw the tapestries and the impressed look the portraits. A mad laugh made him turn his head as the face of Alphard Black appeared above him.

The handsome man had a wicked smile and dark bags decored his eyes. Still with his unkept hair and ruffled clothes from the day before, he looked every bit of the young lord he was.

"It worked !" screamed the man, gazing at him with crazed eyes. "He is perfect ! Perfect !"

Alphard looked at the boy, touching his face, his hair, not believing what was in front of him. The child was the exact portrait of Sirius when he was young. He had the same inky hair, the same insolent beauty, the characteristic seraphic face and long limbs but the eyes...His eyes weren't of the intense silver color of Sirius, of the Black, but of the particular enearthly blue of the woman, the creature that laid on the floor above.

A blue so magnificient and enchanting that it seemed to hold all the color of all the oceans, river and seas, so marvelous that it didn't look like it belonged to this world and vibrating with so much power that it could bring wizards on their knees...

Heavens...With this boy, what power, what prestige, what glory would find the name of Black ! Alphard calmed his frantic touches as a calm and satisfied smile rested on his lips. He passed a hand on the dark and silky hair of his new great nephew and simply said "I welcome your birth in the world...Altair Sirius Black."

 _To be continued..._

 _I hope you liked it don't hesitate to review to let me know of your impressions/questions !_


	5. Lumena Walburga Black

**CHAPTER IV :**

 **Lumena Walburga Black**

Harry had never wanted to die.

If there was one thing that he had always been sure of, it was of his desire to live. Of his happiness when he had the permission to go gardening, to be outside and to look at the sky above him. When he saw this sky, always magnificient, so vast and so big, he thought of all the lives that could be lived on this earth. The sky never had pity for him, nor the earth under his feets and neither of them would wait for him.

It always comforted him to know that the sky looked at him the same way it looked at the Dursley and at all the other kids around him. The sky was fair, the earth was fair, life was fair, only men weren't. Once Harry understood that, he also understood that there were nowhere in the world of men where he could be treated in a just and fair way. Because in the world of men, nobody was equal to his neighbor and men didn't look at other men in the same fair and forgiving way the sky did.

Because under the eyes of the sky the world was on fire and the stronger men ate the weaker ones to be even stronger.

"Harry Potter died yestersay, do you understand ?"

The boy looked at Alphard Black through his dark and shiny locks and smiled before answering softly "I understand perfectly, uncle Alphard."

The man crouched before him and Harry looked at his handsome face. When looking at men like Alphard, he couldn't help but tell himself that if the sky was just, fate certainly wasn't. After all it allowed the birth of men like Alphard and Sirius, men for whom beauty, strenght, power and intelligence were like dogs loyaly following them.

Alphard passed a hand in the beautiful hair of his new nephew, pulling at them in a gentle way, his serious expression never leaving his face. "Now you are Altair Black. Do you know what it means ?"

"No, uncle."

Alphard gripped the shin of the child in a strong hand. "I said that I was going to offer you a life beyond your wildest dreams, and I was honest when I said this. The blood that now flows inside you is Black blood, royal blood. With this blood you can have more than you could ever imagine, you could even bring the world to his knees...In the Black House, every child is gifted with the name of a star and you are Al'Tair, the eagle. The eagle because you are meant to fly higher than anybody, to raise yourself above all..."

The boy looked absent-mindedly at the sky through one of the tall window of Alphard's manor and simply smiled. Fly higher than anybody...So after all this years looking longingly at it, the sky had finally see him too. "Altair..." whispersed the child.

"Are you sad, child ? That Harry Potter had to die ?" asked Alphard.

"Not really" answered Altair with a far too dashing smile for one of his age. "I never really liked him anyway."

§§§

Altair stood before the big mirror inside his bedroom.

The words were strange...His bedroom. He had never possessed anything in his whole life. Not a room, not a bed, not even his own life and body. To have was something strange, to have beautiful things was even more unsettling.

His bedroom was bigger than the Dursley's entire living room and more solemn and majestious than anything he had ever seen. It was covered in tapestries and ornated with gold and argent, his bed could fit more than ten boys like him and the mirror in front of him dwarfed him. But the reflection it was showing had its entire place in such a decor.

Because the boy in front of him wasn't the kind of boy who didn't possess anything. The boy who was in front of him was that kind of person you only met every centuries, because they were so perfect that The Creator had to take extra times to make them. Looking at them was like looking at stars, beautiful, untouchable, bright enough to daze but not enough to blind and make it impossible to admire them, but made to gaze at...They were the kind of person with whom sucess and beauty fell in love in the crib, their kisses transpiring at every moves they made.

The face of this boy had no imperfections and even the worse grimaces couldn't bring any fault to it. The skin was of an albaster white, pure and shining as a polished rock and contrasting strongly with hair and and brows as dark as a night sky and falling around on the perfectly sculpted face as it could on one of the museum's cherub. But what was the most startling was the eyes of the boy in the mirror, so intense, so beautiful that it didn't seem possible not to lose and drown oneself in them. Their unearthly blue seemed to live and move like sea water rolling under the wind.

"This face will bring you problems."

Altair turned rapidly to face the owner of the low voice that just spoke. Ho...It was this man. The one who knew his parents and was named after one of the brightest stars in the sky...Sirius. Even with tousled hair, bags under his eyes and a recovering body he wore his name well. He was one of thoses men you encontered every centuries. Too handsome, too regal, and maybe too mad looking. But with a face like his, he could take over the world without anyone complaining.

Sirius smiled weakly at the boy, he was pale and without a doubt weak from the blood loss. He sat on the bed and made a sign for the child to come next to him. The child approached slowly before sitting close to the tired man, looking at him with hopeful eyes. The man seemed to understand and his smile seemed to grow as he let his hand fall heavily on Altair's head in an affectionate pat.

"This face brought me problems" the man continued. "And also blessings. You see, this world we live in is the most vain thing to ever exist. People bow before a pretty face, begin to go crazy before a beautiful one but before one like ours...they would be ready to sell themselves. When I understood this...I despised them."

Altair looked at the man with curious eyes, he understood every words the man used, for he red as soon as he got the occasions and not often children books. The hand on his head started to comb through his dark locks as Sirius continued, his eyes bearing a faraway look. "I never thought that your face or body structure could make you different or superior to the person beside you, but it seemed people proved me wrong all my life. Even thought we were all born from a woman, even thought death would come to all of us, even thought we had the same sky and the same God above our heads...I discovered that in this vain, vain world, people would degrade themselves to slaves only for my looks, my blood, my name and my money. So I played with them. I wanted to show them how ridiculous they were, but they never seemed to think they fell low enough. Even my madness couldn't deter them. Even my mother was in love with this face. Sometimes I think this is the only reason she never tried to kill me."

"Will my face make slaves too ?"asked the child timidly.

"Yes it will" simply said Sirius "but your eyes...These aren't human eyes, these are eyes for which people ended themselves, eyes that caused the doom of many. Your face will make them fall on their knees, but for your eyes...they will all die for a look from them."

"What if I didn't wanted it...What if I didn't wanted people to become slaves or die for me ?"

"What if a tiger didn't want to kill ?" a musical voice intervened.

The two males turned their head to look at the owner of the enchanting sound only to find a more enchanting person. The mermaid. His mother, thought Altair quietly. The woman looked completely fine in opposition to Sirius, apparently blood loss didn't let her weakened for a very long time. She smiled of her own secret and dangerously beautiful smile and walked with an unearthly grace toward Sirius and Altair, sitting beside the boy and brigging him close to her side.

"You can walk now" said Sirius nonchanantly, a crooked smile bringing his full lips up.

"Oh dear...I'll have you know that I am quite a _very_ fast learner" she answered with a smile of her own, who looked more like a predator barring his teeths.

She let her eyes fall once more on the child, Altair, _her_ child... "My child...your heart is too soft. There are some things we cannot change, preys are preys and predators are predators. The most successful kings were tyrants, I saw them, intelligent tyrants, who took the power by force, and the people reverred them for their strenght. Look at what kind of animals the men admire...Are lions, tigers, bears and wolves nice creatures preoccupied by the well being of their preys ?"

"But they cannot help being what they are." defended Altair.

"No, they cannot" agreed the mermaid with a smile "Just as much as a prince cannot help being born a prince, and deciding to be something else would mean to negate himself."

"He still can choose." answered softly Altair. "He sill can choose between being a successful prince, or a good one."

The mermaid furrowed her brows "And you, what do you choose to be my son ?"

The boy looked at the dark sky through the window, heavy with thunder clouds, vibrating in power and majesty. "What is the sky ? Is he successful or is he good ? I think he is neither of it. The sky is above success and goodness, he is justice, wrath and majesty. And this is what I will be."

Sirius looked at the boy, brows high as he saw the thunder reflect in the deep blue eyes. A child didn't talk like this...James's child certainly would never have talken like this. But this wasn't James's child, this child was his. He had his face, his blood, Black's blood...This wasn't Harry, this was Altair Black and Sirius felt almost giddy with excitement. He took the boy in his arms in an almost violent embrace, letting his head roll back as he let out a loud and mad laugh. He did it...This was the proof, the proof that he was above them all, that he would rise above the ones that tried to destroy him, even in his descendance Sirius Black could only give birth to greatness.

§§§

Altair had great difficulties to understand his father.

The man was completely imprevisible. He was like a volcano, and no one could predict when he would erupt. But like a volcano he was fascinating, majestuous and for the lack of a better word, great. He found that even if he didn't understand him, the sometimes mad and intelligent glint in his intense eyes, or his handsome secret smile, it didn't bother him nor did he need to. Already the man that was his father, that gave birth to him in this new life, that gave him this new body, was like a king to him. And he was devoted to him like the most faithful servant would be to the most gracious king.

Altair also found that he had no difficulties to understand his mother.

Because it was always like this with mothers. You only understood that she loved you and this was enough. For a child a mother wasn't a woman that could be understood, she was only an angel, a home, and you didn't have problems to understand your guardian angel or your home, you only knew it was yours and it was enough. He was fascinated by her, by this creature of beauty and light that was his mother, by her ignorance of this world that was even greater than his but to which was allied the most unexplainable assurance that she didn't need to know it to be above it.

He was fascinated by her beauty and of how easily she could make people trip over themselves with one look. But more than anything he was fascinated by her eyes, these eyes that were the same as his but so different, full of love, prudence and possession when they fell on him, and full of anger, passion and burning with curiosity and need when they fell on his father.

He understood that their relationship wasn't the common married couple's one, but in some aspects it seemed much, much stronger. It was as if the room vibrated when they looked at each other. And he didn't need to understand more than that to smile and to know that everything was okay, because people that seemed to come alive when they looked at each other couldn't be without one another, and to know that for a child was plenty enough.

He also found that he had no difficulties to understand his uncle Alphard. He was a proud and prudent man, but one that with filled with malice and certainly a ruthless man if he ever found something to wake his long asleep ambition. He apparently founded it in Altair, and wanted to mold him to be the greatest Black who ever existed. When he looked at him, the boy saw this satisfied and avid fire rumbling, and these hands flexing impatiently to see what high he would access.

It was also very simple to comprehend what it was like to be Altair Black. He was a little prince, the portraits told him so each time he passed close to them, and born to be a king, Alphard repeated it to him at each lesson they spend together. These lessons took place everyday and at any moment, sometimes they even lasted all the day. Most of the time, Sirius and Lumena were also present to comment.

At night, when the time came where he had to go to sleep, only his mother stayed with him, telling him frightening tales of the life under the sea while Sirius and Alphard talked and plotted, neither of them sleeping for more than 5 hours each night.

Altair didn't actually have much time to spend on playing with the luxurious toys that were given to him, mostly pieces that could have their place in a museum or even in heaven if you asked him. His favorite one was his horse, human size and carved in ebene wood, the animal would come to life when he sitted on it, and go around the manor to accompagny the boy in the most amazing adventure in the wide and great property of Alphard Black. It was a very fitting toy for a little prince.

When it was the time eat, they all sat around a great table made in the darkest wood. They would eat the finest meal, always cooked to perfection by theses small and amusing creatures that the adults called house elves. Well beside his mother who seemed to have a neat preference for quality raw meat, bloody, and cutted in small pieces. The child didn't know what was the stranger, what she ate, or the grace and beauty she exuded when she did it.

Today, like always, Sirius and Alphard drank wine, speaking of strange subjects concerning politics, parlement and a trial...Sirius mostly took potions to fade the scars his imprisonnement had left on him but recently he had been able to eat, just as he seemed to become more handsome as each day passed. Today, Altair could see his father in all his glory, and it seemed he wasn't a normal king anymore, but much more than that, like these god-blooded ones that lived in the legends of the ancient days. His cheeks weren't sunken anymore, and his skin wasn't gostly pale, there weren't dark bags under his eyes but only a indecently beautiful face that seemed to carve itself with an all new perfection at each expression. And the imposing and remarquable figure of a man of action.

Everyday, his devotion for his father grew and grew and he could say without a doubt that if his mother had became his world, and that this world was governed by the absolute word of Sirius Black. But today was different, they were only three for the meal, Alphard being absent for urgent matters.

When he came back Altair was laughing at one of his father's joke and even Lumena had cracked a smile, but as soon as they saw the face of the older man, every sound of laughter disappeared from the room. The boy gave a lost look in the direction of his father who slowly stood up.

"What has happened, uncle ?" asked Sirius warily.

The man slowly took of his hat, and then his black leather gloves, all in a perfect silence. He then looked at Sirius, a grim expression on his face before answering in a strong voice. "Your mother...Her sickness is becoming worse and worse. And the medicomage said..."

"Stop. Stop right here." cutted Sirius, a dangerous look appearing in her eyes. "This mean nothing, she has been sick for years and she was always stronger than this."

"Never like this Sirius !" said Alphard raising his voice. "I know my sister, and...She doesn't even recognize us ! She is only ranting and she is becoming crazier each day..."

"She always was mad it doesn't mean anything !" screamed Sirius.

"This isn't only madness ! The illness is devouring her from the inside, it doesn't only damage her brains, her heart...her heart won't last long. She is dying Sirius."

There was a deafening noise as Sirius let himself fall on his sit once again, taking his plate and covers with him in his fall, the porcelain crashing in the ground.

Altair didn't understood much about death. But from what he knew, it meant that nothing could ever be the same anymore.

§§§

Altair thought he had see impressing, that he had see tall, that he had grand and luxurious, but it was because he never saw the Black Family Manor, Grimmaud Palace, that rose through the trees with its sinister greatness.

He had never seen its persian tapestries and turkishs carpets, neither did he saw its ivory stairs and ten meters windows, its onyx funitures and white marble floor. But this moment, he wasn't in a state that would permit him to be comfortably in awe in front of the décor.

His hand in Lumena's, he silently followed the two men before them, they finaly arrived before a great double door in ebene with argent locks. Alphard stopped before them and looked at Sirius one last time. "Are you sure you want to see that ?"

The young man didn't respond, only pushing the door open, entering the room. There on a luxurious and great bed a woman was laid, her breath labored, surronded by a group of fifteen persons all wearing grim expressions. They were all of great beauty so much that Altair started to think that perfection was the common measure with which each Black was created. Some of the women were sobbing and the men held their hat in their hands, their jeweled canes stuck under their arms. And even in her old age and pathetic state, with her gosthly pale skin, tousled black hair and fine white night dress, the woman lying on the bed was exceptionnaly beautiful.

When Sirius entered into the room, all the people present raised their heads to look at him, and on every face shock replaced grief. But the young Black didn't look to pay attention to the look directed to him or to the whispers that broke the precedent religious silence. For a moment he stayed at the door, looking at the woman laid on the luxurious bed with an expression that looked lost between shock and despair.

As he ran to the bed, it looked like he was falling at each step taken and this until he finally let himself completely fall to his knees close to the bed. He frantically took the weak and pale hands of the Black's matriarch "Mother...mother...mother ! Mother, can you hear me ? Do you hear me ?"

The dark-haired woman painfully opened her heavy lids before looking at the face of her son and saying "Orion...Orion is that you ? Have you come to lead me to death now ?"

Her voice was broken and rapsy like sandpaper, but without a doubt it had one day been a powerful voice, full of authority and obeyed without a whisper of protestation. Sirius shook his head desperatly as he tightened his grip on his mother. No matter what happened, no matter how he lived, a man could never forget his mother, neither could he seperate his heart from the body in which it was formed, forever he would remember her and love her.

It was a bitter love Sirius always felt for his mother, for he always hated that no amount of bitterness and anger could make it fade and disappear. He hurted her and she hurted him too and he hated to be in pain when she was in pain, to be ashamed when she screamed and to think about her and miss her when he was alone. As much as he would have liked to, he never hated her. But he always hated loving her.

And now, now that this woman who was always stronger than anything was weakened to this point he felt as thought as it was him who had lost all his strenght. Her hand rose to his cheek as she said "Orion...Orion where is Sirius ? Where is my son ?"

"This is me mother, I am your son. This is me, Sirius."

The hand lost all her softness leaving the handsome face to grip the hair and scratch the skin in a vicious hold. "You are not Sirius. Sirius left me. Sirius left me ! He left his brother to die ! He left me screaming his name for days ! If you are my son, then how are you going to take responsabilities for my heart ? How are you going to take responsabilities for my heart that you destroyed ?! How are you going to take responsabilities for the murder of the Blacks ?! You ingrate, you disloyal, you rotten son ! You killed us ! You killed everybody !"

The beautiful and weak face looked as if it had come alive with madness. The pale hands moved frantically slapping the arms and the neck of Sirius, who didn't try to duck and just closed his eyes under the hits. After what looked like an infinite amount of time, the slaps weakened, and Walburga continued with a tired and tight voice.

"Do you know how much I cried for you ?"

Sirius looked at his mother with haunted eyes "No, I don't know mother."

"I.." Walburga hitted her bust with her fist, her tired hand falling heavily over where her heart was. "I cried so much that I thought that I didn't had any water left in my body, that I thought I wouldn't be able to cry for your brother's death. I cried so much that I wasn't able to move from by bed for days, and when I could, I only haunted this house..."

Her voice broke and she closed her eyes. She stayed silent for a moment before her silver eyes fell over Sirius once again. "Never had I thought I would want to kill my own flesh and blood as much as I wanted to kill you. When I saw what you betrayed me for...I gave you life, I birthed you, my blood lives in you and the strangers you were so loyal to...What did they do ?" An almost cruel smile appeared on her dry lips. "You were a prince for me...But you prefered being a dog for them ! A dog for them ! The shame of it almost killed me ! It killed me !"

Sirius didn't raise his head looking in front of him with an empty expression as his mother violently turned in her bed. "What are you going to do about that ?" she finally asked.

It seemed as if it was the only question that Sirius was waiting for. He immediately raised his head and took his mother's hands between his. He looked intently in her eyes with his own silver ones and kissed them before saying. "I will resurrect the Black. I will make you see our lost kingdom rising from its ashes, like you always wanted. I will become the king you gave birth too and wash our shame in the blood of our ennemies. I will transform the wizarding world before your eyes. I will put your grieving heart to rest, mother."

The woman looked at Sirius with a blank expression before turning her eyes to see for the first time the two figures by the door, a woman holding the hand of a little child. She narrowed her eyes before asking "Who is this ?"

Sirius turned his head and looked at Alphard who immediately guided the woman and the child before the bed, their faces coming out of the shadows, illuminated by the light of the flames and chandelier. For what looked like the first time in years, Walburga Black looked shocked. Her eyes were fixed on the mermaid's blue one and when they fell on the boy her breath was immediately cut.

Before her, before her was the Black's glory, and it was all in the eyes of this little boy.

"Mother" started Sirius, tightening his hold on the pale hands. "Mother, I would like to present you to my wife Lumena Black, and my son, Altair Sirius Black."

The religious silence in the room was then again by the whispers of the Blacks present. All wanted to be assured that they were hearing and seeing well and that before them, Sirius Black had announced his union to a mermaid and presented the child who came from it.

Lumena didn't look very concerned or bothered by the whispers in the room and the insistent looks she received. Her eyes fxed on the woman before her and she smiled in a beautiful manner before saying simply. "You are dying...And really quickly. You already smell like death."

Sirius violently turned to his wife, his eyes sending thunder in her direction but before he could speak, she continued her eyes fixed on the dying woman. "But you aren't sick. You are just poisoned."

The face of Sirius became as white as a sheet and his hand gripped his wife's wrist. "What are you saying, Lumena ?"

Walburga only smiled before the magnificient face above her. "Sharks always smell blood and death better than others, don't they ?"

The mermaid only raised a brow and said with an amused smile. "Yes we do. You won't last 3 days, and in fact I'm not even sure to see you on tomorrow morning. Neverthless I am happy to have met you, and I regret not having known you before."

"Is that so ?" said the woman in a tired but surprised tone. "I didn't thought that sharks would want to have relations with other species."

"But they don't. Sharks only know how to recognize one of their own, madam."

" You flatter me, my girl. Never would I have expected to have my eminent death announced by my daughter...And neither would I have expected her to be one of your glorious race. Or thought that I had a grandson...Sirius, bring the child closer to me." she ordered with an imperious flick of hand.

Altair tightened his fist on his mother's dress, to leave her comforting presence to come to this cold and dying woman didn't look appealing. Moreover he too could smell it, death, this putrid smell that

impregnated the bed sheets. But only one look from his father was enough. In one look he understood that even in this death's stench this woman was like a queen to him, and that it wasn't permitted for him to refuse this request. This was his family, he thought as he let one time his eyes roam through the room. He let go from the silk of his mother's dress, took a deep breath and approached the bed.

The woman seemed to devour him with her grey eyes and soon she spread out her long arms and let touch everything she could touch from him. His black hair, smooth skin, aristocratic features...She seemed to evaluate his high height for a boy, his insolent beauty and finally his unatural blue eyes. For the first time since he arrived, and certainly the first time in years, a true smile broke through the aged face of the woman, and the boy saw a glimpse of the beauty which the heaven haved blessed her with.

"Without a doubt he is your son Sirius...It has been a long time since I have last seen a Black so magnificient."

She let herself fall back on the mass of pillows in her back and closed her eyes before saying with a contented smile. "I can die in peace...for I have seen before my eyes appear the glory of the Black. I have seen it reflect itself in my flesh and blood, and bloom is the eyes of a boy. Now I can meet my ancestors and face them with pride for my blood has not failed."

Her breath seemed more and more shallow in the sensitive ears of Altair and the woman kept her eyes fixed in his. Still looking at him she let a knowing smile adorn her dry lips as she let an heavy ring fell from her finger in the hands of Sirius. "You know what that means...I have always thought that you were a king. Even in death I will observe you my son, keep me content and be the king you were born to be, or I will haunt you."

She then turned her tired head in the mermaid's direction before saying "And you...I have a last gift for you. A parting gift from a shark to another...Consider know that you are Lumena Walburga Black. With this name I offer you, I am giving you strenght and authority to rule this house like the shark I was. You were right...You won't see me in the morning."

Altair looked terrified as the light progressively left her grandmother's eyes, the lids falling over them as an ultimate veil as her head felll heavily on the side. He didn't heard anything after that. Only silence. Death was a deafning silent that didn't leave the place for any sound, not a breath, not a heartbeart, nothing.

And then he heard it. His father's scream, like a wounded beast and he understood that the weight of this silence was enough to break a man's heart.

§§§

"Leave me alone"

"But we are alone." said Lumena in a calm tone.

Sirius rose violently his head and crossed the room with angry steps. He hitted the wall with his fist, cornering his wife, his face deformed by rage and grief. "Don't you understand the meaning of _solitude_ , mermaid ?"

A smile came adorning her enchanting features as she simply said "But I understand it well. The dark and loneliness can do many things to a fragile heart, but none good. And this is because I know it so well that I won't give it to you. You should know it too. Didn't we met in the dark and loneliness ?"

The rage on Sirius's face seemed to crumble, and the weight of all his dark and loneliness seemed to fall upon him. It seemed to crush him as he let himself fall on his knees, his arms surrounded Lumena's waist as he pressed his face in her belly, crying there like a child.

The woman only stood there, looking at the man, asking herself why she felt her heart tighten before her sadness. It wasn't pity, after all she couldn't feel pity. What was it then ? Maybe it was this cursed name that this woman gave too her...Walburga. This name weighted on her heart. She also felt heavy, just like him.

She smiled to herself. Why fight against it ? She closed her eyes, letting her hands fall onto the silky hair. The arms around her waist tightened as Sirius's muffled voice rose "Don't leave alone again. Never again."

"I won't. After all, haven't we made a child together ? I think we are stuck together you and I. But after all it isn't so bad, is it ?"

Sirius looked at her with his bright grey eyes as a sad smile covered his lips. "No, it isn't."

§§§

"Sirius, I would like to speak to you. Privately."

The man who spoke was tall and at the opposite of the other Blacks, he had long blond hair. But he still had the characteristic aristocratic features and pale complexion of british nobility. His father looked at the man with tired eyes before following him into one the private room of Grimmaud Place, Lumena walking closely behind him, her hands engulfing Altair's small one.

The blond man closed the door behind them, and as soon that it was done, debarassed himself from his calm and complaisant expression. His features hardened, as he passed a hand in his long and almost luminous hair.

"Long time no see, Lucius." offered Sirius with a sign of head.

Lucius Malfoy turned a thunderous expression before he said in a strained tone. "I don't care for pleasanteries, Sirius. What I want to know is : do you mean what you just said to aunt Walburga ?"

"I mean it."

Lucius started to shake and passed a hand on his face to calm himself. "Well then I think you should know the state of the family." he said as he crossed the room to a small table, where he served himself a glass of firewhisky. "The Black family has now just 9 completely Black members without you and your family. The others persons you saw were only family by marriage which I am part of. Bellatrix is in jail, Walburga is dead, Regulus is dead, we don't now how much time Actarus and Pollux have left, Cygnus is sick, Andromeda was cast away because of her affiliation to a muggle, Cassiopea has no sense of politics, no sense of affairs and is only interested by dark arts..." Lucius took a deep breath, gulping his drink before turning to face Sirius.

"Lucretia is a Prewett now, and this is an influential family, you can thank Cygnus for their wedding. And Charis is married to the Crouch thanks to me. But that leaves absolutely no lady to marry and form alliances with. We need alliances, we need it bad because since Orion's death and your...little trip to Gryffondorland, Walburga negleted relations with other purebloods. Plus I spoke to Rodolphus as he was in jail, and he wants a divorce with Bellatrix, he wants me to find him another wife, another Black's wife."

"Divorce isn't possible..." started Sirius.

"But it is. It is if the wedding wasn't consummed and if he is complete the rare cases of adultry coupled with treason and dishonour. Stupid Bellatrix had several relationships with the dark lord, never gave an heir to Rodolphus in seven years of marriage and betrayed him by using Lestrange fonds to finance death eaters expedition without his consent."

Sirius slowly closed his eyes as Lucius continued. "Do you understand the situation ? For now the only links the Blacks have are Malfoy, Crouch and Prewett. Rodolphus and Rabastan are the only heirs of the Lestrange, you cannot lose them. Find them wives."

"The only Black of marriageable age that I know is Andromeda and...she is already..."

"Just fiancé." intervened Lucius. "Kill the guy, get rid of it, I don't care but this is her that Rodolphus wants, and then we only have to find another for Rabastan. This is how alliances are made. The ideal would be to gain control over small purebloods family and then give their daughters, it is possible, the Blacks still have money."

Sirius passed a hand over his face, shaking softly his head. Lucius clacked his glass against the wood. "What is it, Black ? Already too much for your Gryffondoric heart ?"

"My heart can bear more things than you can think of Lucius. I will do what I have to do to save my family."

"Good"he said drily. "Because it has been more than ten years since the government has taken restrictive laws against influential purebloods who hindered the ministry power. Regulation of the numbers of children, regulation of the contact with other countries's purebloods...What you have to fight against is the entire magical ministry, and what you have to remake isn't only the Blacks but the entire pureblood's status and lordship in Great Britain. So now I repeat my question ? . mean it ?

"I think I already answered this question. And my answer didn't change."

Lucius smiled in a strange manner before searching for something in his inside pocket. He finally got out a white paper that he put flat on the table before Sirius. "Then I will give you a chance to prove it. This is your calling, Lord Black, for a trial before the ministry and the entire magical world."

 _To be continued..._

 _Don't hesitate to let me know what you think of it, and thank you for every review, follow and favour !_


	6. The Trial

**Chapter V**

 **The Trial**

The trial of Sirius Orion Black caused a great commotion in the magical word.

In every streets, the Gazette and even the least popular wizard papers were entirely liquidated. People fighted to see their covers adorned with the face of one of the greatest criminal and death eater of the twentieth century. The places for the trial were bargained at an insane price, and some were even negociated and sold in the black market.

When the great day came, the entire Black family made the travel to the wizard ministry's justice room in their luxurious, entirely black and silver carriages. As soon as they arrived, they were surrounded by journalists and Altair was blinded by the flashes of lights and deafened by their questions shouted in a random order. But he wasn't afraid, for his father was beside him, his presence grounding, his dignity almost unsettling as he advanced silently through the smoke of spitted by the wizard cameras.

Altair didn't really see much of the travel from the carriages to the tribunal as he was pressed flat against Alphard's right leg, his face brushing against the quality tissue of his throusers and hidden by his great uncle's firm hand. But he clearly heard the silence, that heavy and sinister silence that marked their entrance to the trial room.

When his face was uncovered, he finally saw the faces of his father's persecutors. They were old faces and surprisingly ordinary. The room in itself was grand, with its dark and high pillars, its circular and oppressive architecture and the mass of people it welcomed, all sitted on high seats, surrounding the lonely chair of the convicted, standing in the middle of the place in its poor wooden material. And in the highest seats, seating in these ingraved wooden chairs, with so much power in their hands, were perfectly plain men, no kings like his father, no surnatural beauties like his mother, nor noble lords and ladies like every member of his family but simply old men.

The boy furrowed his brows as he looked around him. He thought that greatness was a common measure in the wizarding world, but as he saw the faces that surrounded him, he quickly understood that it wasn't case. This world was like any other, unfair, with men gifted and others ignored, needing to climb to the sky by the sole strenght of their arms.

From a high table, dominating the rest of the wizards, the head of departement of magical law enforcement, Justus Pilliwickle was sat, observing from his austere brown eyes the new head of the Black family. He was a fair man, a lover of justice and order to the point of gaining a reputation of uncorruptibleness. But he was also a hard man, obstinate in his search for truth, denouncing the ministry enough times to be dismissed from his job, but his image much too loved and trusted by the public for the government to make such an attempt. He narrowed his eyes for a moment before saying in an cold voice :

"I declare the second opening of the Black's affair."

Sirius advanced slowly until he was standing close to his designated seat, the sinister and crumbling black wooden seat at the center of the room. He looked at it with a smile before choosing to stay standing up next to it, giving the trial room a circulator look. He assured himself that the press was present, discretly sat in the public side, before finally turning to face his judges.

Altair was guided to the public seats, condemned to leave his father's side, but as he looked one last to time to his profile, his previous anxiousness melted and as he saw the regal posture, and the slight smile adorning this characteristic handsome and confident face. Before the crowd, the convict Sirius Black didn't seem to exist and in its place was a young lord with such dashing face that it seemed revolting to see it in such a place. When he smiled, the people in the crowd held their breath and they didn't released it until his low and warm voice was heard.

"I regret that I already have to disagree with you." he said calmly.

Justus furrowed his brows behind his small glasses but Sirius immediately continued. "Two things are wrong in this statement : first, there cannot be a second opening of the affair, since I didn't received a trial the first time, the affair being classified before having a chance to be opened. Second, it is not Sirius Black anymore but Lord Black and I would appreciate it if my current position with the law wasn't an excuse to strip me of my title and dignity."

Several whispers made themselves heard in the room and Justus looked the others members of the court for a confimation. Their embarassed expression spoke for themselves and the judge looked infuriated before this shameful error, before proceeding through the usages. " The chief of accusations are : the murder of thirteen muggles and of the Potter family on the night of the 31st october 1981, affiliation with a criminal organisation under a known criminal and pureblood supremacist and finally evasion from the prison of Azkaban. Do you plead innocent or guilty of theses charges ?"

"I plead innocent and ask for an interrogation under Veritaserum to prove my future declarations."

A rumble ran through the crowd once more as the Justus hitted the wood of the table in front of him with his wand, re-establishing silence. "By asking for Veritaserum you deny yourself the right to have a lawyer, to call for witnesses's testimony, and engage yourself to answer each and every question until the court comes with a verdict and this without the permission to withdraw yourself from the examen without the permission of the court or to negate your statements afterwards. Do you still wish to proceed, Lord Black ?"

"I do."

Whispers grew louder as Sirius answered. Veritaserum wasn't something asked by guilty wizards, mostly they tried to convince the court with a string of witnesses and known lawyers, and in fact this method was almost never used, because too risky for the pleading. So when the known criminal and convict took the glass flask and drank all of its clear liquid, the public couldn't believe the scene acting before their eyes.

The judge started the interrogation with the traditionnal questions. "Who are you ?"

The words flew out of his mouth. "Sirius Orion Black the third, born on the 3rd november 1959, current head of the Black family. Son of Walburga Black and Orion Black, brother of Regulus Actarus Black, all deceased. Hogwarts graduate in the house of..."

"That will be enough." cutted Justus looking at the file in front of him before slowly raising his eyes towards Sirius and asking. "Did you commit the murder Lily and James Charlus Potter on the 31th october 1981 ?"

"No, I didn't."

This simple statement caused an uproar in the public side. From everywhere people turned to their neighbor, incredulous. Justus raised his wand again before saying in loud voice. "If the public keep disrupting the trial, they will be banned from the justice room for the rest of the cession !" Immediately the silence was re-established and Justus turned to Sirius again, himself furrowing his brows before commanding silentely to see the flask of Veritaserum. Smelling the empty flask, its characteristic scent confirming its authenticity, he turned again to face the ex-convict. There was a moment of silence, where the judge simply looked at the Black head, before he continued the interrogation.

"Did you participate or were simply present during the murder of Lily and James Potter ?"

"I didn't participate to the murder in any way and I wasn't present during it either."

"Did you knowingly shared informations concerning the location of Lily and James Potter that night ?" insisted Justus.

"No, I didn't."

"Did you participate, finished, were present or planned in any way the murder of thirteen muggles that night ?"

"No, I didn't."

The public was crazed, but everyone kept as silent as they could for nobody wanted to miss what looked like the trial of the century. The court room was silently buzzing and the flask of Veritaserum passed through the hands of every member of the court who inspected and smelled it, each more incredulous than his neighbour.

Justus took of his glasses, stunned, before pursuing the interrogation in a dazed tone.

"Then how do you explain that when the aurors arrived, you were 'on the crime scene, wand in the hand, out of breath and laughing madly' ?" he asked, reading the sentence out of the report before his eyes.

"I led an investigation on my own and found out that the death eaters had planned to attack that night. I came running to the Potter's house to warn them and take them in a more secure place, but I arrived too late. When I saw the corpses of my best friends on the ground, I thought I would go mad with grief." said Sirius in the flat tone the Veritaserum gave.

"Were you questionned by the aurors then ?"

"No, I wasn't. They had orders to arrest me. They wanted to get rid of me."

"Why would they ?"

"Because in my auror's years, I collected informations on the ministry and the auror's service but also on several politicians. I knew things that could cause the fall of many men, and was about to dilvuge the wrongdoings of this government."

Justus was almost curious to ask what theses informations were but he prevented himself from doing such a thing. Journalists couldn't already be taking notes in an hungrier way, and divulging theses informations in such a place could be a very dangerous thing to do. The judge cleared his throat, focusing on the trial once again.

"Did you make a premedited evasion from the prison of Azkaban ?"

"It wasn't premedited." corrected Sirius in a flat tone.

"Did somebody help you in your evasion ?"

Sirius clenched his throat, closing his eyes and saying slowly. "My wife did."

Quiet whispers ran through the crowd again as all the eyes turned to look at the corner where the Black family was sat. They immediately fixed themselves on the only unknown and most beautiful face orned by the most unnatural blue eyes. Lumena Black didn't let any emotions transpire from her, her eyes fixed on Sirius.

"Did you ask her to do it ?"

"I agreed to it. I wanted to see my son. I couldn't for six years."

From the public seats, Lucius Malfoy had to contain the laugh building in his chest. This man was really intelligent...He alrealdy divulged informations which would make the wizarding world doubt the judgement of its government, and maybe even ask for an investigation which would lead to an epuration. The pureblood families would only have to pull some cards to put the most annoying politicians on the side for discrimination.

And now...The card of the devoted wife and caring father was brillant and won the affection of the public in no time, already the blond man saw compassionate expressions appear on the face of the public.

Lucius raised his right hand toward his mouth, hiding his smile. Making affairs with the new Lord Black promised itself to be very interesting.

The judge looked toward the Black family and as soon as he caught the eyes of Lumena Black, he understood how the convict could escape. He touched his mustache before saying, thoughtful "You are married to a dark creature and have a seven years old son, but I don't see a marital act in your file, Lord Black."

"We didn't marry through wizard's administral conventions, but through the Black's pureblood ones, and the one of her race."

At this sentence Lumena raised a single eyebrow, letting a mocking sound escape her. Yes, as trickery was a common convention for the Blacks, after all it was a tradition of theirs to trick her species into marriage.

"I see..." Justus let himself fall in his seat and passed a hand through his hair before asking looking a last time to the file. "Did you ever affiliate yourself in any way with the known dark wizard called Lord Voldemort ?"

"No, I didn't."

A deafening silence followed theses words. That was it, all the accusations attributed to Sirius Black were cleared. In only several minutes, the mad and treaterous convict Black became this wronged and magnificient king, in only several minutes a legend was born. Justus sighed before raising a hand "I declare the interrogation of the Lord Sirius Orion Black the third closed. The court has now all the informations needed. Please free Mr. Black from the effect of Veritaserum."

The crowd was still completely thunderstruck, and followed the events in the same dazed manner as it did at the beginning of the interrogation. Justus himself couldn't believe the judgement he would write under name of Sirius Black : innocent. There was something off, something very off. As the effect of the Veritaserum wore off, Justus still couldn't take his eyes off the ex-convict. "I ask for the court's members final judgement."

Each time the word "Innocent" rang, Justus furrowed his brows, unable to contest it, but feeling as if it was the wizarding world's sentence confirmed with every court's member's voice. Massaging his eyes behind his closed lids, he tapped his wand against the desk before saying, almost regretfully. " The court members have spoken. The results of the Veritaserum being indisputable, I declare Sirius Orion Black innocent of his crimes and victim of the court's errors."

As if confirmed in this strange dream, the public's side broke in applause, and Justus saw Lord Malfoy and other's pureblood's family head politely applauded, contentement speaking on their face. Furrowing his brows, he felt the strange atmosphere becoming heavier and heavier and as he met the eyes of the new Lord Black his worses fears became reality. Sirius Black winked in the direction of the judge and Justus thought that, just like he always thought, Kings and Lords could be free of charges but that they were never innocent.

§§§

"Dear child..."

Sirius rose his head and his eyes found similar ones, older but just as bright and far more vicious. He smiled and advanced towards the opened arms of his grandfather, accepting the embrace before the flashes of the numerous cameras. It was even noisier than before, and aurors had to come and make way for the Blacks to be able to have a way back to their carriage.

The ex-convict almost wanted to laugh before the situation, the same men who spitted on him and had wanted to break him were now the most devoted guards. Pulling himself from the embrace of Pollux Black, he heard the old man quietly say "How you must have suffered my boy...You should have told us from the beginning that you became an auror to infiltrate the ministry. You are too secretive, son, you even let the family in the dark about your adorable wife and son. We have much to discuss, too much time has been lost."

Just in one sentence in the trial, Sirius knew that his reputation in the pureblood world was as clear as his name in the common wizarding one. By this embrace before the eyes of all, every young lord and noble blood saw that the pratriach of the Black, highly dark and conservative Pollux was behind the new head and that the Blacks were as tightly linked as they should.

Sirius Orion Black was no longer a pariah but this blessed king, with the face crafted by heavens and with the purest blood the wizarding world could offer. In front of their eyes was the almost divine son of Orion and Walburga Black, but he was no longer this cherubic boy who made the girls and women sigh but a man who with only one look, one smile stole their breath altogether. And he knew it.

"Let's have a big meal tonight, grandfather. With everybody." offered Sirius, looking at the elder through his dark and silky hair. The Black patriarch patted the head of his grandson, a satisfied light burning in his dark, dark eyes.

Just for the show, Sirius then ran toward his wife and raised her from the ground. The mermaid looked at him with a surprised look that became more and more human as he soundly kissed her lips. Letting her fall back he kept his arm around her waist he carried his son on his left arm, offering him to the eyes of the world.

The flashes were even brighter than ever before, capturing every look, every smile from the Black family. But none of them were shining brighter than Altair Black ocean eyes.

§§§

Grimmaud Place seemed to have gained a new life. All the domestics and house elves alike pressed themselves in the corridors, heavy tapestries and silver plates in their hands.

The manor had a new lord, and for the first time in years all the Black and the family's relatives would be gathered for a dinner. Their lord supervised everything, looking with a bored but sharp eye as everything was dusted, the chandelier lighted and the best tableware put with precision on the dark wooden table of the autumn dining room.

Lucius Malfoy entered the corridor and a smile adorned his face as he saw Sirius Black commanding for the golden tapestries to be put on the walls. The blond stopped his procession and started to clap in a loud and calm way.

Sirius slowly rose his eyes and responded with a smile to the clapping of his relative by alliance and blood. Lucius approached while speaking in a more than satisfied tone "It is a pity that we were in different years in Hogwarts, had I known how positively vicious and calculating you could be, I would have suffered your company years ago."

"The company of a Gryffindor ?" answered Sirius, raising a mocking brow in the direction of his cousin.

"Had I known you before, you certainly wouldn't have been tricked by that Potter boy into going in that shameful house. Why choose to be a pathetic guard dog when you could have put the wizarding at your feet as soon as you hitted fifteen ?"

"Then I am happy not to have known you before, dear cousin." Sirius calmly said, examining a golden fork as he continued. "For it is not the Blacks, but the treason of this house that has made me who I am today, and as...positively vicious as you praise me to be. This is this house which gave me this...anger against the ministry and thanks to her, I am more motivated to reign than ever. The rabid dog that they put in a cage will soon be sat on the throne of this world. How ironic."

The eyes of the blond seemed to shine even brighter and he sincerely laughed, he let a heavy hand fall on the shoulder the new Black head. "Good ! Very Good ! I am liking you more at each word you utter, cousin ! And I have never anticipated working with you so much...The purebloods will be sat on this forgotten throne, and I will see it before I pass, I swear this to the heavens !"

Lucius passed an elegant hand in this light and sliky hair "You know...I have a son who has the same age as yours. We shouldn't do the same mistake with our sons and make them grow apart. A prince becomes much stronger and doesn't have a risk to take the wrong path if he has an equal to be his friend and stand beside him. And after all the wizarding world is big enough to have several kings, a sole leader proved to be too...precarious to take on such a huge role by himself. What do you think of it ?"

Sirius offered an amused smile to Lucius. "My charming cousin decided to use his sweet talk with me ? Has he decided to forget his alliance with Voldemort to forge a new one ? The dark lord wasn't so successful to grasp the power you desire, was he ?"

The blond contained a rictus and said in a tight tone "Yes...Well, you made an error of jugement in the past, let's say that I have done the same. Ambition run in our blood, but sometimes it can misguide us...I am not a man of blind loyalty, dear cousin and I would not have you believe this, I am indeed a man of interest and I have few principles. Still one of them is to never turn against blood or heavens, both have made you. Or...How did great Walburga said it ? Oh yes...Blood doesn't lie."

The smile on Sirius's face had disappeared as the words continued to escape Lucius's mouth. This man knew how to speak, he was eloquent and well versed in manipulation. The Black silently appraised him, he didn't know what value he could give to theses words...

"He isn't lying, if this is what you are asking yourself."

Both men turned to the melodious voice who had just spoken. The glorious new Black wife was there, her cold and luminous eyes fixed on Lucius, her silver and white dress making her skin glow in with an almost unnatural glow, her dark hair still wet from the bath pressed closely against her perfect face, pressed against her hips and body like the most enticing veil.

"Madam Black" intervened Lucius with a gracious sign of head "I didn't know you were here, I am..."

"But I know who you are..." cutted the mermaid with an amused smile. "We have sharks like you in the sea. Always hungry, always attracted by the scent of fresh blood...This hunger is what conducted you to have this cursed mark on your arm, isn't it ?"

The blond seemed to become more pale as the creature spoke, her bright eyes never leaving his. "How did you know ?"

"Dark magic like this one leaves traces...It stinks. I could get rid of it for you...if I wanted to."

Lucius recovered his smile and said in his sugary voice. "And what would make my dear new relative want to get...rid of it ?"

Lumena smiled, but it looked more like a teeth barring than polite turn of lips. "What would indeed...You are an intelligent man. And sharks are good creatures, useful, strong. But sadly, they are too cold blooded for alliances and have this tendency to eat each other when there isn't anymore food..."

"I assure you my lady, that I don't fancy cannibalism. What a loss of time...Did you know, my lady ? On the Malfoy emblem, there is no shark, but snakes and mostly dragons. You have to know dragons, my lady, after all your race and their's are known to have the same love for tresors. And they make amazing protectors toward the wizarding realm and in the past toward its king. Ho...Now that I think about it, this is the exact name of my son...Draco. What a marvelous match he would make to the ruling future of your darling son..."

The mermaid frankly laughed, her head going backwards before fixing her eyes on the man again. "You really are an amazing man, Mr. Malfoy...I have seen my fair share of interested, vain and power hungry creatures, but you are the only whose mind was as bright as his desires were abyssal." She approached the blond man, her smile slowly disappearing from her face as she said in a voice so quiet that it almost seemed threatening. "You are right, I am a collector and I have a great love for treasures. Like every good collector, I can see the worth of something with just one look. And I can see you...Your greed could rise you and your name as high as the clouds in the sky or take you down to an empty pit to a pathetic and shadowy fate. You know my weakness, Mr. Malfoy, you know what my cold heart feel for my darling son and you know how precious is my husband for me. But I am not afraid...Or should I ?"

The blond man stayed silent for a moment, his eyes resting for a moment on Sirius who looked at the exchange between him and his wife with an extreme attention. His lips twitched before his pleasing mask came over his face once more. "Of course not, the simple suggestion of it would be preposterous. After all, you are a Black now, and this makes you a lady of my blood, this is for sure."

"Is it ?" she susurred. "Then I don't have anymore hesitation. I am glad to share blood with you, Mr. Malfoy."

§§§

Altair had assisted at dinner before, in little commities, surrounded by his uncle, father and mother, but with a great share of luxuries and etiquette. But this night seemed so extravagant, so well orchestred that it was as of it was his first one.

The attention that he and his father have been receiving since the morning didn't seem to lessened. In fact it seemed to be even worse. His grip on his father's throusers got stronger, as he raised his eyes to look at the faces that were surrounding them. They were similar faces, they all had theses characteristics features, the same aristocratic nose, jet black hair and clear eyes.

His eyes stopped on the face of a man whose cold grey eyes seemed on fire with greed and ambition. As his unnatural blue eyes encountered his, the face of the man almost seemed transfigured with glee as he said in a shaking tone "Prodigeous...Absolutely prodigeous." He approached carefully, as if Altair could disappear at any moments, he crouched in front of him, raising an almost hesistant hand. "I am Cygnus Black. I was the older brother of Walburga, your grandmother. And you...You are a miracle alive. Do you know what you do to our name ?"

Altair furrowed his brows before thinking of the words Alphard always repeated to him before starting his lessons. "I am Altair Sirius Black, the first. I bring glory to our name...The sky will open for me and I will rise higher than any before." he added confidently.

A heavy silence followed his words, and the eyes on him seemed heavier and heavier. The women looked at him with a surprised expression hidden behind their fan and the men seemed stunned with the sheer guts of the child who had said theses words as evidence. They thought that this child had been vaguely educated, sharing his childhood with a dark creature on the shore of Azkaban, discovering civilization late in the form of the renowned Black's hermit, Alphard Black. But never would they have imagined the sheer intelligence, power and the eloquence modulating his soft voice.

This child was indeed the son of Sirius Black, just like him, he was cherub like, as if each age came to perfection as they passed on him. But the brillance with which he expressed himself and which shined into theses eyes...Oh, theses eyes...It seemed that a whole world was hiding behind theses eyes, a world of crazed sea, typhoons and raging skies.

"I think it is time to go to the dining table." said Sirius as he was looking at his son, a strange light shining in his eyes. It was as if as the new head was lost in his thoughts as he absentmindedly passed a hand through the silky black hair of his son, so similar to his.

"Yes we should, Altair, my dear, seat next to me for dinner...I mean, if you don't mind my dear Acturus" continued Pollux, looking at his cousin and step-brother with fake concern. The other man didn't stop the rictus from appearing on his face before responding in a sugary tone "Of course not. I accord you this priviledge as the last official _patriarch_ of the Black."

The pleased look on Pollux face faded, as he looked at his brother-in-law with a raging look. His cane tapped drily on the ground as he approached the dining table. It was covered in gold, with fine embroided tablecloth, lightened by flauting white candles and decorated with unperishable flowers, plants and fruits.

Altair was going to sit before his own golden plate and fork but stopped as his hand encountered the pale one of an equaly pale child who was reaching for the wooden seat at the same time as he was. The young black turned his head to look at the pointy and aristocratic features of the child before him, his blond hair were almost white and glowing close to the candles, and everything from his clothes to his bearing seemed to scream nobility. He knew who was this child, after all Alphard made him learn his entire family tree...It was his cousin, Draco Lucius Malfoy.

But what attracted his attention was his blue eyes, theses eyes...they weren't the eyes of a child, they spoke of a loneliness he was too familiar with. Far too familiar...

A rictus curved the pale pink lips of the boy as he said in a slow tone. "So I am before my _oh so amazing_ new cousin... I don't think you know who I am yet, even thought I already know of you and of your previous savage life in the north's sea..."

Altair almost wanted to smile. Of course, the boy wanted to cut him with his words and maybe a green eyed boy would have been wounded, but Altair only looked at the boy straight in the eyes, fixing him to the point where the blond one became uncomfortable. "What are you looking at, Black ?" the pale child asked, squinting his clear eyes. 7

"I am looking at you. You and I, we really look like each other, don't we Draco ?"

The boy seemed surprised, by the knowledge his cousin seemed to have of his name just as much as by the words he chose to pronunce. They didn't look like each other, of course they didn't. The hair of his cousin were as black as his were blond, as wavy as his were straight, his features lacked the angularity of the Malfoy, and he was also less pale than he...But at the same time, there was a familiarity in the shape of their face, in his way to cock his head to the side, both of their eyes were blue...

Blue...

Draco's eyes were of a pale blue, the blue of a winter's sky, piercing and wide at the same time, shining like two stones in the snow. But the eyes of the child in front of him, they were this amazing colour, this tone which shouldn't exist, who seemed dark, alive and moving. While looking into his eyes, it was as if he was naked, as if he had always knew this person, as if he would believe anything coming out of the red mouth of his cousin.

"What...?" the pale boy only said. He didn't have the time to develop before he was cutted once again.

"Now, that we know each other, we won't ever have to play alone, will we ?" continued Altair, his eyes still fixed in his.

"I didn't agree that..."

"We will be good friends, we are suited to be the best friends, you'll see."

And just saying that, the black haired child went to choose another seat, responding to the calling of his grandfather, his gracious smile never leaving his full and red lips. Dumbfounded, Draco sat on his choosen place. This encounter wasn't what he thought it would be. Definitely not.

He furrowed his brows thinking of his cousin's words. Friends ? He scoffed. Right, friends. Even as a child he knew that his family on his mother's side was bat shit crazy. His aunt was the perfect example, and now she was in jail. This boy's father was in jail only several weeks ago, for Salazar's sake !

But this boy...Draco raised his suspicious eyes to him. He looked as he came from the union of two far too beautiful creatures to even exist. As if his birth was a miracle, or the worst thing which could ever happened. And his eyes...Theses eyes weren't crazy...only dangerous. They made you want to believe anything their owner said, and for a moment, he thought that he was...understood. Just understood.

No one liked to be alone. And accepting loneliness was much more tiring than casting it off. As his cousin send him a smile from across the table, Draco scoffed and looked to the side but inside of him, he knew that there was nothing for him fight against.

Maybe he was really understood in that moment. Maybe they would really be friends.

Maybe...

 _To be continued..._

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